No romance The Famished Road (1991), o autor nigeriano Ben Okri dá uma nova dimensão à figura da criança-espírito ou abiku, que é um motivo recorrente entre os iorubás e em diversas outras culturas da África ocidental. Como um fenômeno da crença dessas culturas, o abiku é um tema característico da narrativa oral africana, tendo sido usado também em várias obras da literatura africana de língua inglesa. Okri realiza, contudo, uma inovação ao transformar o abiku no narrador de seu romance. Uma vez que essa criatura é um in between, vivendo permanentemente na intersecção entre o mundo dos vivos e o dos mortos, a estrutura da obra literária é alterada pela realidade vista pelos seus olhos. A sua visão é composta pelas imagens da simultaneidade entre esses mundos. Na construção de seu romance, Okri tenta traduzir essa visão para um público leitor ocidental, utilizando ao mesmo tempo paradigmas da oralidade africana e da literatura ocidental. O romance se coloca, assim, num espaço de transição entre a cultura africana e a ocidental. São utilizados métodos e estratégias narrativas de ambas as tradições e o próprio fenômeno do abiku é investido por outras concepções mais ocidentais a respeito da ressurreição da alma. O objetivo desta dissertação é mostrar, de acordo com uma perspectiva crítica pós-colonial, como esse romance se constrói como uma obra híbrida entre os modos de se perceber e de se retratar a realidade característicos de cada uma dessas culturas. / In the novel The Famished Road (1991) Nigerian author Ben Okri gives a new dimension to the spirit child or abiku\'s image, which is a recurrent motif among the Yoruba and many other cultures from West Africa. The abiku is a characteristic subject of the African oral narrative and is also present in some African literature in English as the abiku is part of the belief of those cultures. However, Okri undertakes an innovation, turning the abiku into the narrator of his novel. Since this creature is an in between, living permanently in the intersection between the world of the living and the world of the dead, the structure of the literary work is altered by the reality as it is seen through his eyes. His vision is made up by the simultaneous images of those two worlds. In the construction of his novel, Okri tries to translate this vision to a Western reading audience, using paradigms from both the African orality and Western literature. Thus, the novel is placed in a transitional space between African and Western cultures. Narrative methods and strategies from both traditions are used and the abiku phenomenon itself is invested by other more Western conceptions about the soul\'s resurrection. This dissertation aims to reveal from a postcolonial theoretical perspective how this novel is constructed as a hybrid work between the modes of perceiving and depicting reality characteristic of each one of these cultures.

No romance The Famished Road (1991), o autor nigeriano Ben Okri dá uma nova dimensão à figura da criança-espírito ou abiku, que é um motivo recorrente entre os iorubás e em diversas outras culturas da África ocidental. Como um fenômeno da crença dessas culturas, o abiku é um tema característico da narrativa oral africana, tendo sido usado também em várias obras da literatura africana de língua inglesa. Okri realiza, contudo, uma inovação ao transformar o abiku no narrador de seu romance. Uma vez que essa criatura é um in between, vivendo permanentemente na intersecção entre o mundo dos vivos e o dos mortos, a estrutura da obra literária é alterada pela realidade vista pelos seus olhos. A sua visão é composta pelas imagens da simultaneidade entre esses mundos. Na construção de seu romance, Okri tenta traduzir essa visão para um público leitor ocidental, utilizando ao mesmo tempo paradigmas da oralidade africana e da literatura ocidental. O romance se coloca, assim, num espaço de transição entre a cultura africana e a ocidental. São utilizados métodos e estratégias narrativas de ambas as tradições e o próprio fenômeno do abiku é investido por outras concepções mais ocidentais a respeito da ressurreição da alma. O objetivo desta dissertação é mostrar, de acordo com uma perspectiva crítica pós-colonial, como esse romance se constrói como uma obra híbrida entre os modos de se perceber e de se retratar a realidade característicos de cada uma dessas culturas. / In the novel The Famished Road (1991) Nigerian author Ben Okri gives a new dimension to the spirit child or abiku\'s image, which is a recurrent motif among the Yoruba and many other cultures from West Africa. The abiku is a characteristic subject of the African oral narrative and is also present in some African literature in English as the abiku is part of the belief of those cultures. However, Okri undertakes an innovation, turning the abiku into the narrator of his novel. Since this creature is an in between, living permanently in the intersection between the world of the living and the world of the dead, the structure of the literary work is altered by the reality as it is seen through his eyes. His vision is made up by the simultaneous images of those two worlds. In the construction of his novel, Okri tries to translate this vision to a Western reading audience, using paradigms from both the African orality and Western literature. Thus, the novel is placed in a transitional space between African and Western cultures. Narrative methods and strategies from both traditions are used and the abiku phenomenon itself is invested by other more Western conceptions about the soul\'s resurrection. This dissertation aims to reveal from a postcolonial theoretical perspective how this novel is constructed as a hybrid work between the modes of perceiving and depicting reality characteristic of each one of these cultures.

In Ben Okri's The Famished Road, rituals such as baptism are easily lost in the dense symbolism. The novel is, in the words of Douglas McCabe, a "ramshackle and untidy affair, a hodge-podge of social ideologies, narrative forms, effusive enthusiasms, and precision-jeweled prose poems" (McCabe 17). This complex untidiness can be discouraging for readers and critics alike, and yet "there is something contagious about the digressive, meandering aesthetic of The Famished Road" that makes the novel difficult to consign to confusion (Omhovere 59). Commonly considered post-colonial, post-modern, and magical-realist, The Famished Road deals with, among other things, spiritualism, family relations, and political and sociological tensions in Nigeria in the decades before its publication in 1991. These themes are depicted with a rush of symbols, and in such a clamor, baptism and other rituals may have trouble making themselves heard. And yet, paying attention to the repeated performance of baptism transforms this audacious, ramshackle novel into a story of liminality, alienation, and reconciliation, a story which celebrates these things as inevitable and necessary parts of life. As readers, we can use baptism to decode The Famished Road. In doing so, the novel develops a cyclical, ongoing narrative focused on the difficulties of and increased agency in liminality and the necessity of ritual, on an individual, familial, and socio-cultural level, in navigating that in-betweeness. I will begin by exploring baptism in The Famished Road in order to understand the performance and power of ritual. Here, ritual acts as a doorway, giving characters a chance to navigate liminality without removing themselves from it. This navigation gives them an increased understanding of how the world works and how they may operate in it. After exploring baptism as a ritual, I will examine Okri's "universal abikuism" and its connection to the flexibility of liminality.

Linguistics and literary studies approach the same object language from different perspectives. In spite of their shared interest, these fields of research are still separated by a border that is all too rarely crossed. The discipline of stylistics, however, has tried to exploit the common ground between the two domains. This dissertation will attempt to bridge the gap further by examining how linguistic theory can contribute to the elaboration of literary interpretations of selected works by three Nigerian authors. This study takes as its point of departure the Bakhtinian view that language is inextricably linked to its development in society. The medium carries the ideologies to which it has been attached throughout history, leaving speakers with the difficult task of appropriating words for the expression of their own intentions. This socially based perception of linguistic codes finds echoes in post-colonial theory, which has paid attention to the ideological implications behind the imposition of the colonial language in the former British Empire, to which Nigeria belonged. Post-colonial movements of linguistic decolonization have taken many forms and, in the literary field, the responses given by African authors have been among the most remarkable. The first chapter of this dissertation provides an overview of the question of language in African literature, an issue that has divided both writers and critics for decades. It is discussed here in relation to the definition of African literature and to more general considerations on the subject of categorization. The second part of the chapter is devoted to a discussion of the methodological choices that have informed the analyses conducted in the rest of the study. It is argued that linguistic investigations into Nigerian fiction should take into account the many culturally specific strategies that can be found in the countrys literature, but should also extend their scope to stylistic techniques that are not directly linked to the literary works post-colonial status. The second chapter focuses on the novel Another Lonely Londoner, a rarely discussed work by the little-known author Gbenga Agbenugba. The narrative is written in an experimental style that mixes English with Nigerian Pidgin and includes elements of Nigerian English, Black British English, Cockney and Yoruba. Extensive analyses of the interaction between English and Nigerian Pidgin are undertaken from sociolinguistic and grammatical perspectives, each time with the view of assessing the impact of the languages on the novels possible literary interpretations. The other codes, varieties and linguistic influences contained in the book also receive systematic treatment, and it gradually appears that all these elements combine to produce a complex polyphonic piece. The third chapter provides an examination of selected works by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. The investigation into Adichies writing constitutes the point of methodological articulation of this study. The first part follows the way paved by the analysis of Agbenugbas novel, and further looks into issues relating to cultures and linguistic codes, among which the themes of language and food in some of Adichies short stories, and the presence of Igbo, codeswitching and proverbs in her novel Purple Hibiscus (2003). The second part of the chapter departs from explicitly cultural models and investigates the narrators use of language with a variety of theories, borrowed for instance from functional grammar and cognitive linguistics. This combination of approaches aims at demonstrating that literary, cultural, social and cognitive methods can complement each other to produce a coherent interpretation of Adichies work. The final chapter compares Ben Okris second novel, The Landscapes Within (1981), with the authors revised version of the same book, Dangerous Love (1996). A general introduction outlining the changes that have taken place between the two narratives is followed by a discussion of some of the stylistic aspects that distinguish Okris earlier novel from his later text. The chapter then takes a cognitive turn, and tries to establish the importance of metaphor in the novels, especially in Dangerous Love. This analysis of metaphor leads to the creation of an interpretative framework that forms the basis for a textual analysis of some of the novels narrative sequences. The conclusion reaffirms that the adoption of an eclectic methodology has contributed to the exploration of Gbenga Agbenugbas, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichies and Ben Okris approaches to the notion of identity. In the light of these results, possible lines of research are evoked. La linguistique et les études littéraires abordent le même objet le langage ou la langue selon des perspectives différentes. Malgré leur objet commun, ces domaines de recherche restent séparés par une frontière qui nest que trop rarement franchie. La stylistique a toutefois tenté dexploiter lespace partagé par ces deux disciplines. La présente dissertation tâchera de poursuivre cet effort en examinant les manières dont la théorie linguistique peut contribuer à lélaboration dinterprétations littéraires ; ces dernières porteront, en loccurrence, sur des textes choisis dans luvre de trois auteurs nigérians. Cette étude prend sa source dans la conception bakhtinienne selon laquelle le langage est inextricablement lié à son développement au sein de la société. En effet, le médium charrie les idéologies auxquelles il a été attaché au fil de lhistoire, laissant les locuteurs aux prises avec une tâche difficile : celle de sapproprier les mots pour exprimer leurs propres intentions. Cette perception des codes linguistiques, fondée sur une approche sociale, trouve des échos dans la théorie post-coloniale, qui sest intéressée aux implications idéologiques de lutilisation imposée de la langue coloniale dans lancien Empire britannique, auquel appartenait le Nigeria. Les mouvements post-coloniaux de décolonisation linguistique ont pris de nombreuses formes et, dans le champ littéraire, les réponses apportées par les auteurs africains comptent parmi les plus remarquables. Le premier chapitre de cette dissertation offre un aperçu général du problème de la langue dans la littérature africaine, lequel divise écrivains et critiques depuis des décennies. Ce thème est ici mis en relation avec la définition de la littérature africaine, ainsi quavec des considérations plus générales portant sur la question de la catégorisation. La seconde partie de ce chapitre consiste en un examen des choix méthodologiques qui ont sous-tendu les analyses menées dans le reste de cette étude. Largument avancé dans cette section est le suivant : toute exploration linguistique de la fiction nigériane devrait prendre en considération non seulement les multiples stratégies culturellement spécifiques présentes dans la littérature du pays, mais également souvrir aux techniques stylistiques qui ne sont pas directement liées au statut post-colonial des uvres littéraires. Le deuxième chapitre est consacré à Another Lonely Londoner, une uvre rarement traitée par la critique et due à un auteur méconnu : Gbenga Agbenugba. Le roman est rédigé dans un style expérimental mêlant langlais au pidgin nigérian et incorporant des éléments danglais nigérian, danglais parlé par la communauté noire en Grande-Bretagne, de Cockney et de Yoruba. Des analyses approfondies de linteraction entre langlais et le pidgin nigérian sont entreprises selon des perspectives sociolinguistiques et grammaticales, dans le but dévaluer, dans chaque cas, limpact des langues sur les possibles interprétations littéraires du roman. Les autres codes, variétés et influences linguistiques contenus dans le livre font également lobjet dune étude systématique, dont il ressort progressivement que tous ces éléments se combinent de manière à produire un texte complexe et polyphonique. Le troisième chapitre examine une sélection duvres écrites par Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. Lexploration de ces dernières constitue le point darticulation méthodologique de la présente étude. La première partie suit la voie tracée par lanalyse du roman dAgbenugba, et investigue plus avant certaines questions relatives aux cultures et aux codes linguistiques, parmi lesquelles les thèmes de la langue et de la nourriture dans certaines nouvelles dAdichie, ainsi que la présence de ligbo, lalternance codique et les proverbes dans son roman Purple Hibiscus (2003). La seconde partie du chapitre sécarte des modèles explicitement culturels pour explorer, à laide dun éventail de théories notamment empruntées à la grammaire fonctionnelle et à la linguistique cognitive, lusage que le narrateur fait du langage. Cette combinaison dapproches vise à démontrer que les méthodes littéraire, culturelle, sociale et cognitive peuvent se compléter pour produire une interprétation cohérente de luvre dAdichie. Le chapitre final compare le deuxième roman de Ben Okri, The Landscapes Within (1981), à Dangerous Love (1996), la version du même livre revue par son auteur. Une introduction générale exposant les grandes lignes des changements qui se sont produits dun texte à lautre précède un examen de certains des aspects stylistiques qui distinguent le premier roman dOkri du second. Le chapitre prend ensuite une dimension cognitive, et sefforce de souligner limportance de la métaphore dans les romans, particulièrement dans Dangerous Love. Cette étude de la métaphore mène à la création dun cadre interprétatif sur lequel se fonde lanalyse textuelle de certaines séquences narratives extraites du roman. La conclusion réaffirme que ladoption dune méthodologie éclectique a permis dexplorer la façon dont Gbenga Agbenugba, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie et Ben Okri abordent la notion didentité. À la lumière de ces résultats, des pistes de recherche possibles sont évoquées.

In Ben Okri's The Famished Road, rituals such as baptism are easily lost in the dense symbolism. The novel is, in the words of Douglas McCabe, a "ramshackle and untidy affair, a hodge-podge of social ideologies, narrative forms, effusive enthusiasms, and precision-jeweled prose poems" (McCabe 17). This complex untidiness can be discouraging for readers and critics alike, and yet "there is something contagious about the digressive, meandering aesthetic of The Famished Road" that makes the novel difficult to consign to confusion (Omhovere 59). Commonly considered post-colonial, post-modern, and magical-realist, The Famished Road deals with, among other things, spiritualism, family relations, and political and sociological tensions in Nigeria in the decades before its publication in 1991. These themes are depicted with a rush of symbols, and in such a clamor, baptism and other rituals may have trouble making themselves heard. And yet, paying attention to the repeated performance of baptism transforms this audacious, ramshackle novel into a story of liminality, alienation, and reconciliation, a story which celebrates these things as inevitable and necessary parts of life. As readers, we can use baptism to decode The Famished Road. In doing so, the novel develops a cyclical, ongoing narrative focused on the difficulties of and increased agency in liminality and the necessity of ritual, on an individual, familial, and socio-cultural level, in navigating that in-betweeness. I will begin by exploring baptism in The Famished Road in order to understand the performance and power of ritual. Here, ritual acts as a doorway, giving characters a chance to navigate liminality without removing themselves from it. This navigation gives them an increased understanding of how the world works and how they may operate in it. After exploring baptism as a ritual, I will examine Okri's "universal abikuism" and its connection to the flexibility of liminality.

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