Thesis (PhD)--Stellenbosch University, 2014. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The study seeks to understand the ways that environmental concerns and the phenomenon of oil production in the Niger Delta are captured in contemporary literary representations. In the thesis, I enlist several works, five poetry collections and a Nollywood video film, produced between 1998 and 2010, to investigate and analyse the different ways they engage with the effects of oil extraction as a form of violence that is not immediately apparent. Amitav Ghosh argues that representing something of such magnitude as oil modernity can only be done adequately through narratives of epic quality such as realist fiction or the historical novel. I move away from Ghosh’s assumptions to argue that the texts, poetry and video film have adequately captured the oil encounter, but not on a grand scale or through realist fiction. I situate Niger Delta representations of the oil encounter within the intellectual frame of petrocultures, a recent field of global study which explores the representational and critical domain within which oil is framed and imagined in culture. In their signification of what I call the “oil ontology”, that is, the very nature and existence of oil in the Delta, lived-experience in its actual quotidian specificity, takes precedence in the imagination of the writers that I study. I propose that the texts, in very different ways, articulate these experiences by concatenating social and environmental concerns with representations of the oil encounter to produce a petro-literary form which inflects and critiques the ways in which oil extraction, in all its social and environmental manifestations, inscribes a form of violence upon the landscape and human population in the oil sites of the Delta. I suggest that the texts articulate a place-based, place-specific form of petroculture. They emphasis the notion that the oil encounter in the Delta is not the official encounter at the point of extraction but rather the unofficial encounter with the side-effects of the oil extraction. The texts, in very different ways address similar concerns of violence as an intricate feature in the Delta, both as a physical, spectacular phenomenon and as a subtle, unseen category. They conceive of violence as a consequence of the various forms of intrusion and disruption that the logic of oil extraction instigates in the Niger Delta. I suggest that the form of eco-poetics that is articulated gives expression to environmental concerns which are marked off by an oily topos in the Delta. I maintain that in projecting an artistic vision that is sensitive to environmental and sociocultural questions, the writings that we encounter from this region also make critical commentary on the ontology of oil. The texts conceive the Niger Delta as one that provides the spatial and material template for envisioning the oil encounter and staging a critique of the essentially globalised space that is the site of oil production. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Hierdie studie ondersoek die maniere waarop omgewingsbelange en die instellings van olieproduksie in die Delta van die Niger-rivier vasgevang word in kontemporêre letterkundige voorstellings. In my tesis gebruik ek verskeie werke – vyf versamelings van gedigte en ‘n Nollywood [Nigeriese] video, almal geskep tussen 1998 en 2010 – om die verskillende wyses waarop hierdie tekste omgaan met die gevolge van olie-ontginning, as ‘n vorm van geweld wat nie onmiddellik opvallend is nie, na te vors en te analiseer. Amitav Ghosh argumenteer dat, om ‘n fenomeen van sulke geweldige omvang soos olie-moderniteit uit te beeld, slegs na behore uitgevoer kan word in narratiewe van epiese dimensies; byvoorbeeld realistiese fiksie of die historiese roman. Ek beweeg weg van Ghosh se aannames deur te argumenteer dat die tekste (gedigte en ‘n video-film) wel die olie-ervaring behoorlik vasvang, maar nie op groot skaal soos in realistiese fiksie nie. Ek plaas die Niger-Delta uitbeeldings van die olie-ervaring binne die groter raamwerk van Petro-kulture: ‘n nuwe studiegebied wat die voorstellings- en kritiese domein waarbinne olie gekonseptualiseer en kultureel verbeel(d) word, ondersoek. In hul voorstellings van die olie-ontologie van die Delta neem die ervaringswêreld in sy daaglikse werklikhede (in die gekose skrywers se uitbeelding daarvan) ‘n sentrale plek in. Ek konstateer dat die tekste, hoewel op heel uiteenlopende maniere, hierdie ervarings artikuleer deur sosiale en omgewings-oorwegings byeen te bring met uitbeeldings van die olie-ervaring ten einde ‘n petro-literêre vorm te skep wat die maniere waarop olie-ontginning, in al die sosiale en omgewings-effekte daarvan, ‘n vorm van geweld op die landskap en die menslike bevolking van die olie-ontginningsgebiede van die Delta inskryf, inflekteer en krities analiseer. Ek stel dit dat die tekste ‘n plek-gebaseerde en gebieds-spesifieke vorm van Petrokultuur artikuleer. Hulle benadruk die feit dat die olie-ervaring in die Delta nie die offisiële ontmoeting by die ontginningspunt is nie, maar eerder die onoffisiële ondervinding van die newe-effekte van die olie-ontginningsproses. Op hul verskillende wyses spreek die tekste ‘n ooreenstemmende besorgdheid uit aangaande die ingewikkelde rol wat geweld in die Delta speel – beide as ‘n fisiese, ooglopende fenomeen en as ‘n subtiele, ongesiene kategorie. Die tekste konseptualiseer geweld as seinde die gevolg van die verskeie vorme van ingryping en versteuring wat deur die logika van die olie-ontginningsproses in die Niger-Delta meegebring word. Ek suggereer dat die vorm van eko-poëtika wat hier geartikuleer word, uitdrukking gee aan omgewings-oorwegings wat in die Delta deur ‘n olie(rige) topos omgrens word. Ek maak die stelling dat, deur middle van ‘n artistieke visie wat gevoelig is vir omgewings-en sosiale vrae, die tekste wat in hierdie gebied ontstaan, kritiese kommentaar bied op die ontologie van olie. Die tekste verbeel die Niger-Delta as ‘n gebied wat die ruimtelike en materiële templaat voorsien om die olie-ervaring te visualiseer en te konseptualiseer, om sodoende ‘n kritiek te skep van die geglobaliseerde ruimte van olie-produksie.

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.

It is argued in this thesis that the Nigerian Novel is an attempt to transliterate traditional customs, beliefs and attitudes, the characters of myth and legends, a whole universe of ancestors, into an entirely new context of the twentieth century, employing a language to which the modern reader can respond. The work gives detailed consideration to the salient features of this attempt and assesses, with particular reference to the novels of Tutuola, Achebe, Aluko, Nzekwu, Amadi, Balewa, Egbuna, Adaora Ulasi, Nwankwo and Okara, what in each case is the atti tudeof the novelist to the indigenous culture of his country and how successfully the link between tradition and modern experience has been established. The approach adopted in the thesis is one of close analysis of texts in an attempt to find out how critically an author has presented those aspects of tradition he has selected for treatment and how skilfully he has dramatized the realities and dilemmas of the present. On each author answers are sought to a numer of searching questions. What are the particular values the writer is upholding or opposing, and what is his attitude to them? What particular emotional or intellectual effect does he hope to achieve, and does he succeed? If he does, by what methods of communication? If he fails, from what problems of communication has failure resulted, and what effect does this have on the reader? What sympathies are evoked, and how do we see a particular work in the body of works of a particular author? A writer's language is a mirror held up to his personality and his particular circumstances. It is through his use of language that he reflects his individual awareness of a given situation. The detailed study of language leads, almost inevitably, to a consideration of the more fundamental problems of communication. Even though all save one of the novelists to whom this thesis is devoted use English as their creative medium, they do so in the consciousness of the fact that they are presenting a Nigerian experience, and the best of them reveal in their works a specific mode of the imagination which derives from their Nigerian background. It has therefore been necessary in all cases to examine closely the use of language by each novelist and try to assess how effectively the artist has communicated. Because of the historical and cultural environment of the Nigerian novelist considerable interest is taken in the influence which the mother tongue (LI) has had on the writer's English (L2). The thesis concludes by identifying the essential requirements for the establishment of a successful link between tradition and modern life: an important theme, a consistent imaginative scheme, a language which recognizes the characteristics of LI and skill in the use of language. Only works in which many of these conditions are fulfilled as, for example, in the novels of Achebe, Amadi, Okara and Aluko achieve satisfactory results. The link between tradition and modern life is valuable only if it widens satisfyingly our experience of what it is to be human and thus contributes to the solution of the political and social problems of the present.

No exercício de comparativismo literário entre as obras Things fall apart, do escritor nigeriano Chinua Achebe (1958), e Terra morta, do angolano Castro Soromenho (1949), é possível estabelecer aproximações e distanciamentos que dialogam entre si e podem trazer reflexões relevantes para o estudo das literaturas africanas. Enquanto a primeira oferece uma visão inédita a respeito do funcionamento interno da sociedade Ibo na Nigéria diante da situação colonial, a segunda transparece as frágeis relações dos colonos portugueses nas instituições políticas, econômicas e sociais do império na região da Lunda em Angola. Já por esse aspecto, os romances convergem para um panorama em comum ao apresentarem tanto o colonizado em Things fall apart quanto o colonizador em Terra morta de maneira distante dos estereótipos retratados pelas figuras coloniais, justamente por problematizarem questões internas e clivagens sociais e históricas. Assim, ao evidenciaram as fraturas internas, contribuem com a crítica sobre o sistema colonial ao mesmo tempo em que ajudam a construir outras visões históricas sobre o tema. Desse modo, as duas obras distanciam-se abertamente quanto aos contextos coloniais, que exigem, diante de uma leitura comparativa, um arcabouço teórico-crítico múltiplo que abarque as diferenças existentes nas dinâmicas coloniais e em seus contextos africanos específicos. O fato de os dois romances trazerem à cena regiões específicas na Nigéria habitada pelo povo Ibo e em Angola determinada como o espaço Lunda - e apresentarem uma multiplicidade de questões étnicas, raciais, sociais e identitárias, acaba distanciando os dois livros em perspectiva comparatista. Em termos aproximativos, no entanto, a problematização dos espaços e personagens retratados nas narrativas e a figura do narrador que assume posições políticas que se aproximam da categoria do autor implícito (BOOTH, 1983), permitem também uma leitura analítico-comparativa entre os romances. Se, por um lado, os contextos sociais e históricos distanciam os escritores e seus produtos literários; os romances se aproximam não apenas pelas categorias narrativas de personagens e espaço, mas também pela posição político-ideológica assumida por seus narradores. A consciência histórica e o compromisso político diante dos fatos narrados estão presentes na representação literária como uma tentativa de entender o funcionamento e apresentar uma crítica aos diferentes processos coloniais. / In the exercise of literary comparison between the novels Things fall apart, of the nigerian writer Chinua Achebe (1958), and Terra Morta, of the Angolan writer Castro Soromenho (1949), its possible to establish similarities and differences that interact with each other and can evoke important reflections for the african literatures study. While the first novel offers an unprecedented vision concerning the inner functioning of the Ibo nigerian society on the colonial situation, the second exposes the fragility of Portuguese settlers in the political, economic and social institutions of the potuguese empire in the region of Luanda, Angola. About this last aspect, the novels converge into a common panorama when presenting an image of the settler that does not fall into a stereotypical perspective of that category, precisely by problematizing inner questions and social and historical cleavages. By exposing the inner fractures of the Angolan society, both novels contribute by criticizing the colonial system and, at the same time, helping to construct other historical visions about the issue. Therefore, both novels deviate from each other when presenting different colonial contexts that require, in terms of a comparative reading, a multiple theoretical and critical framework able to contemplate the differences observed in the colonial dynamics and in its african specific contexts. The fact that both novels bring into discussion two specific regions the Nigeria inhabited by the Igbo people and the Angola established as the Lunda space and present a multiplicity of social, racial and ethnic issues result in a detachment of the novels by comparative means. However, in approximate means, the problematization of spaces and characters portrayed in the narratives and the role of the narrator, who assumes political positions similar as the implied author category (Booth, 1983), also permit an analytical-comparative reading between the two novels. If, in one side, the social and historical contexts set apart the writers and its literary products, the novels are get closer not only by means of space and narrative categories, but also in terms of political and ideological positions assumed by its narrator. The historical conscience and the political commitment concerning the themes addressed in the novels are shown in the literal representation as an attempt to understand and present a critique to the different colonial processes.

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 exercício de comparativismo literário entre as obras Things fall apart, do escritor nigeriano Chinua Achebe (1958), e Terra morta, do angolano Castro Soromenho (1949), é possível estabelecer aproximações e distanciamentos que dialogam entre si e podem trazer reflexões relevantes para o estudo das literaturas africanas. Enquanto a primeira oferece uma visão inédita a respeito do funcionamento interno da sociedade Ibo na Nigéria diante da situação colonial, a segunda transparece as frágeis relações dos colonos portugueses nas instituições políticas, econômicas e sociais do império na região da Lunda em Angola. Já por esse aspecto, os romances convergem para um panorama em comum ao apresentarem tanto o colonizado em Things fall apart quanto o colonizador em Terra morta de maneira distante dos estereótipos retratados pelas figuras coloniais, justamente por problematizarem questões internas e clivagens sociais e históricas. Assim, ao evidenciaram as fraturas internas, contribuem com a crítica sobre o sistema colonial ao mesmo tempo em que ajudam a construir outras visões históricas sobre o tema. Desse modo, as duas obras distanciam-se abertamente quanto aos contextos coloniais, que exigem, diante de uma leitura comparativa, um arcabouço teórico-crítico múltiplo que abarque as diferenças existentes nas dinâmicas coloniais e em seus contextos africanos específicos. O fato de os dois romances trazerem à cena regiões específicas na Nigéria habitada pelo povo Ibo e em Angola determinada como o espaço Lunda - e apresentarem uma multiplicidade de questões étnicas, raciais, sociais e identitárias, acaba distanciando os dois livros em perspectiva comparatista. Em termos aproximativos, no entanto, a problematização dos espaços e personagens retratados nas narrativas e a figura do narrador que assume posições políticas que se aproximam da categoria do autor implícito (BOOTH, 1983), permitem também uma leitura analítico-comparativa entre os romances. Se, por um lado, os contextos sociais e históricos distanciam os escritores e seus produtos literários; os romances se aproximam não apenas pelas categorias narrativas de personagens e espaço, mas também pela posição político-ideológica assumida por seus narradores. A consciência histórica e o compromisso político diante dos fatos narrados estão presentes na representação literária como uma tentativa de entender o funcionamento e apresentar uma crítica aos diferentes processos coloniais. / In the exercise of literary comparison between the novels Things fall apart, of the nigerian writer Chinua Achebe (1958), and Terra Morta, of the Angolan writer Castro Soromenho (1949), its possible to establish similarities and differences that interact with each other and can evoke important reflections for the african literatures study. While the first novel offers an unprecedented vision concerning the inner functioning of the Ibo nigerian society on the colonial situation, the second exposes the fragility of Portuguese settlers in the political, economic and social institutions of the potuguese empire in the region of Luanda, Angola. About this last aspect, the novels converge into a common panorama when presenting an image of the settler that does not fall into a stereotypical perspective of that category, precisely by problematizing inner questions and social and historical cleavages. By exposing the inner fractures of the Angolan society, both novels contribute by criticizing the colonial system and, at the same time, helping to construct other historical visions about the issue. Therefore, both novels deviate from each other when presenting different colonial contexts that require, in terms of a comparative reading, a multiple theoretical and critical framework able to contemplate the differences observed in the colonial dynamics and in its african specific contexts. The fact that both novels bring into discussion two specific regions the Nigeria inhabited by the Igbo people and the Angola established as the Lunda space and present a multiplicity of social, racial and ethnic issues result in a detachment of the novels by comparative means. However, in approximate means, the problematization of spaces and characters portrayed in the narratives and the role of the narrator, who assumes political positions similar as the implied author category (Booth, 1983), also permit an analytical-comparative reading between the two novels. If, in one side, the social and historical contexts set apart the writers and its literary products, the novels are get closer not only by means of space and narrative categories, but also in terms of political and ideological positions assumed by its narrator. The historical conscience and the political commitment concerning the themes addressed in the novels are shown in the literal representation as an attempt to understand and present a critique to the different colonial processes.

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.

Depuis le début des années 2000, l’un des traits distinctifs de la littérature nigériane tient dans son utilisation du genre littéraire du Bildungsroman , dont cette thèse considère les différentes évolutions chez les romancières et romanciers dits de la troisième génération. En examinant une vingtaine de romans, de Waiting for an Angel (2002) de Helon Habila à Freshwater (2018) d’Akwaeke Emezi, ce travail se propose de brosser un portrait panoramique d’un pan de la littérature nigériane ultra-contemporaine par le prisme du Bildungsroman. Prenant appui sur les études de genre, cette étude considère tout d’abord les différentes variations féminines d’un genre littéraire au penchant androcentrique. Les réécritures féminines du Bildungsroman mettent en lumière le développement (ou son échec) d’un point de vue et d’une voix individuels alors que les héroïnes tentent de (se) construire un moi unifié. La tendance allégorique du Bildungsroman sous sa forme traditionnelle est également centrale, et l’Histoire de la nation nigériane, depuis la guerre civile (ou guerre du Biafra, 1967-1970), jusqu’au début des années 2000, est au cœur des intrigues tissées par les ouvrages du corpus : la Bildung des protagonistes se fait en parallèle de celle de la nation. Enfin, au XXIè siècle, les frontières nationales ne semblent plus être tout à fait pertinentes pour les romancières et romanciers nigérians qui, de par leur propre expérience en tant qu’individus, détaillent les nouvelles conditions de développement dans une société mondialisée, multiculturelle, ou transculturelle, où les frontières (géographiques, identitaires, génériques) tendent à s’estomper voire à disparaître. Nous proposons donc de nous interroger sur l’existence d’une spécificité nigériane du Bildungsroman en ce début de XXIè siècle. / Since the beginning of the 2000s, one of the distinctive features of Nigerian literature has been the use of the literary genre of the Bildungsroman . This thesis considers the different evolutions of this genre among male and female third-generation Nigerian novelists. It examines more than twenty novels, from Waiting for an Angel (2002) by Helon Habila to Freshwater (2018) by Akwaeke Emezi, thereby providing a picture of contemporary Nigerian fiction. This study aims at analysing contemporary Nigerian fiction through the genre of the Bildungsroman. By using gender theory, it considers the feminine variations on an androcentric genre. These feminine rewritings put forth the development (or lack thereof) of the heroines from an individual viewpoint as they try to build a unified self. The allegorical tendency of the traditional Bildungsroman is also central, and the History of the Nigerian nation, from the civil war (or Biafra war, 1967-1970), to the beginning of the 2000s, is at the heart of the plots woven by the novels chosen in the corpus: the Bildung of the protagonist parallels the Bildung of the nation. Finally, in the 21st century, national borders do not seem to hold any longer for the third-generation writers who, because they experience mobility themselves, describe the new conditions of development in a globalized society, which is increasingly multicultural or transcultural; borders (whether they be geographical, linked to identity, or generic) tend to fade away, or disappear. This thesis examines whether or not a Nigerian specificity of the Bildungsroman exists in the 21st century.

É possível afirmar que a produção literária de qualquer sistema social dialoga com o contexto histórico, cultural, econômico e político dentro do qual está inscrita, e tal contexto, por sua vez, também dialoga e reage a essa produção definindo um constante movimento sistêmico. Tais imbricações entre literatura e contexto social incidem na construção das personagens, muitas vezes, mobilizadas, nos textos literários, pela construção de suas próprias identidades e em tensão não só com o contexto social dentro do qual vão sendo inscritas, mas também e, inevitavelmente, com as demais personagens que integram a narrativa ficcional. É a partir desses movimentos entre a constituição das personagens, suas identidades e seus respectivos contextos sociais que os romances, O Sétimo Juramento, da escritora moçambicana Paulina Chiziane e, Hibisco Roxo, da escritora nigeriana Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie serão analisados. Tendo por base conjunturas históricas cujas especificidades estão demarcadas, Moçambique e Nigéria, é que as personagens femininas dos romances de Adichie e de Chiziane serão aproximadas e se distanciarão entre si, mas, continuamente em tensão, confrontam o universo masculino. Essas personagens acabam por ascender nessas narrativas ficcionais como mulheres que vislumbram rupturas de sistemas sócio-político-econômico-culturais e acabam por desencadear, sobretudo, novas relações plurais de identidade. Em ambos os romances, de maneira confluente, a dinâmica das tramas reside na movimentação, transformação e ação das personagens femininas que se redescobrem na pluralidade de sua constituição como seres humanos e plenas de possibilidades concretas e objetivas de transformação social para conferirem diferentes saídas para as sociedades de classes, historicamente, opressoras, machistas, patriarcais e opressivas. / It is possible to affirm that the literary production of any social system dialogues with the historical, cultural, economic and political context within which it is inscribed, and that context, in turn, also dialogues and reacts to this production defining a constant systemic movement. Such imbrications between literature and social context focus on the construction of the characters, often mobilized in literary texts, for the construction of their own identities and in tension not only with the social context within which they are being inscribed but also and, inevitably, with the other characters that integrate the fictional narrative. It is from these movements between the constitution of the characters, their identities and their respective social contexts that the novels, O Sétimo Juramento, by the Mozambican writer Paulina Chiziane and, Purple Hibiscus, by the Nigerian writer Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie will be analyzed. Based on historical conjunctures whose specificities are demarcated, Mozambique and Nigeria, is that the female characters of Adichie and Chiziane novels will approximate and distance themselves from each other, but continually in tension, they confront the masculine universe. These characters end up ascending in these fictional narratives as women who envisage ruptures of socio-political-economic-cultural systems and end up triggering, above all, new plural relations of identity. In both novels, in a confluent way, the dynamics of the plot lies in the movement, transformation and action of the female characters who rediscover themselves in the plurality of their constitution as human beings and full of concrete and objective possibilities of social transformation to give different exits to the class societies, historically, oppressive, macho, patriarchal and oppressive.

É possível afirmar que a produção literária de qualquer sistema social dialoga com o contexto histórico, cultural, econômico e político dentro do qual está inscrita, e tal contexto, por sua vez, também dialoga e reage a essa produção definindo um constante movimento sistêmico. Tais imbricações entre literatura e contexto social incidem na construção das personagens, muitas vezes, mobilizadas, nos textos literários, pela construção de suas próprias identidades e em tensão não só com o contexto social dentro do qual vão sendo inscritas, mas também e, inevitavelmente, com as demais personagens que integram a narrativa ficcional. É a partir desses movimentos entre a constituição das personagens, suas identidades e seus respectivos contextos sociais que os romances, O Sétimo Juramento, da escritora moçambicana Paulina Chiziane e, Hibisco Roxo, da escritora nigeriana Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie serão analisados. Tendo por base conjunturas históricas cujas especificidades estão demarcadas, Moçambique e Nigéria, é que as personagens femininas dos romances de Adichie e de Chiziane serão aproximadas e se distanciarão entre si, mas, continuamente em tensão, confrontam o universo masculino. Essas personagens acabam por ascender nessas narrativas ficcionais como mulheres que vislumbram rupturas de sistemas sócio-político-econômico-culturais e acabam por desencadear, sobretudo, novas relações plurais de identidade. Em ambos os romances, de maneira confluente, a dinâmica das tramas reside na movimentação, transformação e ação das personagens femininas que se redescobrem na pluralidade de sua constituição como seres humanos e plenas de possibilidades concretas e objetivas de transformação social para conferirem diferentes saídas para as sociedades de classes, historicamente, opressoras, machistas, patriarcais e opressivas. / It is possible to affirm that the literary production of any social system dialogues with the historical, cultural, economic and political context within which it is inscribed, and that context, in turn, also dialogues and reacts to this production defining a constant systemic movement. Such imbrications between literature and social context focus on the construction of the characters, often mobilized in literary texts, for the construction of their own identities and in tension not only with the social context within which they are being inscribed but also and, inevitably, with the other characters that integrate the fictional narrative. It is from these movements between the constitution of the characters, their identities and their respective social contexts that the novels, O Sétimo Juramento, by the Mozambican writer Paulina Chiziane and, Purple Hibiscus, by the Nigerian writer Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie will be analyzed. Based on historical conjunctures whose specificities are demarcated, Mozambique and Nigeria, is that the female characters of Adichie and Chiziane novels will approximate and distance themselves from each other, but continually in tension, they confront the masculine universe. These characters end up ascending in these fictional narratives as women who envisage ruptures of socio-political-economic-cultural systems and end up triggering, above all, new plural relations of identity. In both novels, in a confluent way, the dynamics of the plot lies in the movement, transformation and action of the female characters who rediscover themselves in the plurality of their constitution as human beings and full of concrete and objective possibilities of social transformation to give different exits to the class societies, historically, oppressive, macho, patriarchal and oppressive.