Poverty as a Formative Discourse in Festus Iyayi’s Violence; The Representation of Poverty in Nigeria as the Referent Society of the Text
African literature has an enduring propensity for social and political commitment. African literary texts reflect and refract the socio-political events in African societies. African literature is on the third phase of its three stages: first, it was a tool for celebrating the heroic grandeur of the African past; second, it was later used for anti-colonial struggle; third , and presently, it is being employed as a veritable weapon for depicting the postcolonial disillusionment felt in all corners in Africa, and in this, a nexus is drawn between the aesthetic of the novel and the social experiences that nurtures the literary consciousness of the writer. This affirms Achebe’s claim that any African writer who shuns the social and political matters of contemporary Africa is at the risk of being irrelevant. Therefore, African literature is always tied to the experiences of the peoples of Africa. This project surveys the literature and assesses the magnitude, persistence and depth of poverty and inequality in Nigeria, using Festus Iyayi’s Violence.
Keywords: discourse, festus, formative, iyayi’s, nigeria, poverty, referent, representation, society, text, violence