African fiction and its social context. A critical analysis of social realism in Festus Iyayi's works

Doctoral Thesis / Dissertation from the year 2014 in the subject Didactics - English - Literature, Works, grade: A, University of Nigeria (University of Maiduguri-Nigeria), course: ENG 899: Thesis, language: English, abstract: This thesis examines Iyayi¿s use of social realism in fiction with the aim to locate his work in the realm of African literature. The concept of social realism and its exponents will be identified and discussed, and its tenets will be applied in the assessment of Iyayi¿s works. Iyayi¿s novels and a collection of short stories are analysed with a focus on locating Iyayi¿s works in the continuum of African literature through an identification of similar authors and their works. Festus Iyayi is comparatively young in the literary circle, compared to names like Achebe, Ngugi, Mwangi, Ousmane and Armah. While some scholars and critics like Amuta (1986) and Ogundipe-Leslie (1994) describe Iyayi¿s works as accomplished works of social realism, Acholonu (1987), on the other hand, does not categorize his works this way.