Niyi Osundare's (early) Poetry: An Interdisciplinary Perspective

Niyi Osundare is one of the most accomplished Nigerian/African poets. His works mark a departure from the extremely privatist, euro-modernist and obscure trend of the early generation of Nigerian poets- Soyinka, Okigbo, Clark, Echeruo. His poetry raises a number of crucial social issues of local, national and international importance. His works are rich and innovative in literary and linguistic devices and point to new areas of manipulation of language that provide a challenge to linguists and literary critics. This book is an explication of Niyi Osundare’s poetry within the three interdisciplinary orientations of stylistic devices, literary techniques and discourse strategies. The combination of these complementary analytical approaches in this book allows for an innovative exploration and evaluation of the poems beyond the purely linguistic, to determine the overall communicative effect of Osundare’s poetry as well-structured pieces of literary discourse. The analysis should help shed light on the poetry of this most productive Nigerian poet, and should be especially useful to creative writers, students and scholars in language and literature.