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Literature in the Contemporary Society, an Indispensable Tool Against the Spread of
Coronavirus

Uche Nnyagu, Benedette Onunkwo & Ngozi Adunchezor

Abstract

The people of the world have in the recent time, demonstrated the belief that the world is
dynamic by adopting innovative means of doing thing as a result of the outbreak of the novel
coronavirus. Coronavirus has caused the death of many people all over the world. Before now,
HIV was the most dreaded virus until in2020 when coronavirus emerged. Coronavirus is as
dreadful as HIV, but coronavirus is curable with some recognized drugs unlike HIV. Though
HIV has no cure, when contracted, it can be managed by those living with the virus and they can
go about their normal businesses without fear of transmission. Coronavirus brought panic into
the world, leading to total lockdown all over the world. The entire world was thrown into
confusion and since 2020, efforts have been on top gear to arrest the virus as well as stop the
spread. The researcher is of the view that writers can help to sensitize the people about the
dangers of the virus as well as educate the people on the best preventive measures. This article
thus, chronicled the dangers of the illness and gave suggestions on how the spread of the virus
could be tackled.

Keywords: Covid-19, literature, language, WHO, environment

Introduction

Although literature is a work of art, literary artist draws his or inspiration from what happens
around him. Therefore, literature serves as a means of understanding society as it aptly mirrors
the happenings in society. Inspired by realities in the society, the writer shapes the literature in
such a way that the literature would have positive effect on the society. According to M.H.
Abrams, in its application to imaginative writing, “literature” is made to mirror the happenings in
the author’s society. Modern critical movements, aiming to correct what is seen as historical
injustices, stress the strong but covert role played by gender, race, and class in establishing what
has, in various eras, been accounted as literature, or in distinguishing between “high literature”
and the literature addressed to a mass audience (152). By high literature, Abrams is of the view
that literature should educate and not solely entertain. Abrams’ belief that literature should also
entertain is widely upheld by many critics. Since the Neoclassical era, literature has always been
used for sanitizing the society. Uche Nnyagu in Literature and Literate observed that John in
Dryden, a Neoclassical writer in his “MacFlecknoe”, believes that satire is an indispensable tool
for correcting impression (194).He goes further to disclose that when satire bites, the targeted
feels the pains and thus, correction is made (194). Literature does this by attacking the ills in the
society in such a way that the targeted would feel the bite and make amends. Nnyagu in addition,



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affirms that literature acts as a gadfly in societies represented by the author. He quotes John
Dryden as believing that literature can only achieve the result of attacking the ills only when the
targeted feels the bite (198).

In his article “The Novelist as a Teacher” published in Olaniyan, Tejumola and AtoQuayoson’s
African Literature: an Anthology of Criticism and Theory, Chinua Achebe enjoined new and
aspiring writers to write about the contemporary issues and present good aspects of the African
tradition to the world. According to Achebe, “The writer cannot expect to be excused from the
task of re-education and regeneration that must be done. In fact he should march right in front.
For he is after all – as Ezekiel Mphahlele says in his African Image - the sensitive point of his
community (105). Achebe prescribes that a writer must reflect and interpret his society, his world;
he must also provide inspiration and guidance and challenge. In his Literature: Structure Sound
and Sense, Laurence Perrine believes that literature, especially literature on the broader sense, is
read for the impeccable message that it carries (4). People believe what they read and so, writers
put down contemporary ideas and happenings in their literature so that readers read and get
exposed. A writer is believed to be a custodian, and he is a teacher teaching the audience what
they ought to know about the society. Writers write based on the experiences that they gather in
society as the experiences provide inspiration to them. Today, Covid-19 is a novel virus;
researchers research and write about it with the aim to get the audience abreast of innovative
means of stopping the spread of the virus. It is obvious that literature would not be possible
without language as language is a means of communication. According to Wikipedia, language
is a structured system of communication used by humans, based on speech and gesture (spoken
language), sign, or often writing. It is the principal method of human communication, consisting
of words used in a structured and conventional way and conveyed by speech, writing, or gesture.
Language is a natural gift human beings are endowed with so every physiologically and mentally
typical person acquires in childhood, the ability to make use, as both sender and receiver, of a
system of communication that comprises a circumscribed set of symbols. What this entails is that
language is basically acquired and not learned. A child born in a particular environment grows
up in the midst of the people and soon, he begins to speak the language of the people without the
language being taught to him or her in any formal means.

The very first language the child speaks as the child begins to talk is the language of the
immediate environment, known as the child’s mother tongue. As said, this language is acquired
and not learnt. The need for a second language arises as one aspires to associate and intermingle
with other people outside one’s immediate society. At this point, one learns and not acquires the
second language. Human beings all over the world are sociable, glaringly different from the
lower animals basically because of man’s unique feature– adaptability. Although in various
societies of the world, people have dissimilar ways of life but persons from different societies
still travel to places where their language is not spoken. Soon after they had come into the new
environment, they intermingle with other people who share different ways of life.



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Without the knowledge of the basic language skills, a new entrant into the society will certainly
not be able to adapt. The ability to think and reason well is another major thing that distinguishes
man from the lower animal. Literature differentiates human beings from animals as it affords one
the opportunity to understand and master a language.

As already said, literature helps one to understand and master the tradition and culture of any
society. Literature uses language as a means of communication. With language, the writer
reveals the tenets of a particular society to foreigners so that one coming newly to the society and
who has read a work of art authored by a person from the society must have understood a bit
about the new society.

One of the writers of this research served Nigeria during his National Youths Service Corp
(NYSC) in Ondo state. During his stay in the Ondo, a Yoruba land, a Yoruba man who admitted
that he had not been to any Igbo society claims he understood much about the Igbo society
because he had read Chinua Achebe’s early novels especially Things Fall Apart which he said,
revealed a lot about the traditional Igbo. From his argument, it is possible that one understands a
place one has not been to if the person studies literatures by the people of the alien society about
them. When one travels to an alien society, all he does is to first, learn the language of the new
environment so as to be able to be assimilated in the society. Without language, no literature
would be possible. Literature, no doubts, uses language to inform.

Coronavirus

Coronavirus, also known as Covid-19 is a global pandemic. Literature writers are tasked with the
responsibility of using their works to x-ray the ravaging dangers of the pandemic so that the aim
could be achieved. This article is centred on contemporary issue – the epidemic ravaging the
entire world. Creative writers use apt language in their literatures to pass across information with
the aim to salvage the society. With apt language, it is believed that creative writers can use their
works to educate the masses on the inherent dangers of coronavirus as well as proffer solutions
on the means to get it arrested.

Historical overview of the Virus

As had noted somewhere in this research, Coronavirus is a family of viruses that ranges from the
common cold to severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS). Many health experts believe that the
new strain of coronavirus likely originated in bats or pangolins. The first transmission to human
beings was in Wuhan, China. On the outbreak of the dreaded Covid-19 illness caused by SARS-
CoV-2, every citizen of every country was enveloped in fear as a result of the enormous dangers
of the novel global threat. Since the first transmissions, the virus has mostly spread through
person-to-person contact.Covid-19 is an acronym coined by the World Health Organization
derived from “coronavirus disease 2019”. Covid-19 is thus defined as an illness caused by a
novel coronavirus called severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS- CoV-2;
formally called 2019-nCoV). Covid-19 was initially reported to the World Health Organization



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(WHO) on December 31, 2019. On January 30, 2020, the World Health Organization declared
the Covid-19 outbreak a global health emergency. On March 11, 2020, the World Health
Organization declared Covid-19 a global pandemic. In recent years, Covid-19 is the most
dreaded disease which has enthroned panic and fear in the whole world. Coronavirus is dreaded
more than the deadly HIV basically because it kills the victim soon after being infected. Unlike
HIV, however, coronavirus cannot easily be managed and its mode of transmission is not only
via one means. Many countries of the world are trying various methods of containment in order
to prevent the spread of the virus. With these worries, schools and universities closed and many
resorted to online platforms and remote education. It was a mystery to many how information
about Covid-19 spread to all parts of the world resulting in blockages of borders. The reason for
border blockages was to prevent immigration and emigration with the aim to stop the spread of
the virus. Since its first case in China, Covid-19 has spread to almost every country worldwide.
According to World Health Organization, 167515, global cases were reported, including 6606
deaths by March 16, 2020 (Wikipedia).

Since the virus is believed to be highly contagious, and it passes easily from one person to
another, public health and government officials around the world are working hard to contain the
spread of the virus.The question is how did people get information about the dangers of the
disease? And how is the information pertaining to Covid-19 disseminated? According to
Laurence Perrine, literature uses emotive language to make hidden facts known globally(3). He
believes that every good literature should not only entertain, such literature should also educate
the audience. According to him, when literature only entertains without educating, such literature
is likened to a miniature golf or ping pong (3).

Today, many works of literature have been written and published on the deadly ailment.
Elizabeth U Nwonwu, Edmund N. Ossai,Chukwuma D. Umeokonkwo et al, published “Use of
Face Mask as a Covid-19 Preventive Measures among Household Heads in Enugu” in Journalof
Medicine Vol.33, No 3, 2021. Also, Chikasirimobi Goodhope et al published “Covid-19 in Sub-
saharan African Countries: Association between Compliance and Public Opinion” in Global
Journal of Health Sciences. Vol. 14, Issue7, 2022. Some of the novels merely reveal the mystery
behind the spread of the virus, others are written to show how terrible the virus is. In all, the
essence of the literature, according to Laurence Perrine, is to educate the masses on the best way
to avoid the spread of the virus in the interest of the society. Literature writers use literature to
educate the masses on the means of coronavirus spread and proffer solutions as well. To do so,
the writers write probably about the fictional characters whose carelessness and stubbornness to
abide by the rules, led to them being infected with the virus.

Literature in Contemporary Society

Literature performs a great role in the modern society; it acts as a check refraining individuals
from going to the extreme in whatever they do. This is why it is said that literature writers are
gadflies and they use their writings to correct impressions in the society. Why literature informs,



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it equally entertains. In his Literature and Society, David Ker quotes Jean Paul Sartre as
believing that literature is useful in modern society(3). According to Sartre in Ker, like morality,
literature needs to be universal so the writer must put himself on the side of the majority to be
able to speak to all and be read by all(3). To be able to pass the information and educate the
masses, literature is written in a language understood by the target audience. According to
literary theorist, Victor Shklovsky, the purpose of literature (art, more broadly) is to
defamiliarize, or make the familiar strange. It causes the reader to regard reality from a different
perspective. This can be unsettling for the reader, who is attached to familiar ways of knowing
the world. But by provoking the reader to see the world as strange, literature allows the reader to
see the world anew. Defamiliarization, thus, leads to new insights. (Wikipedia)

Uche Nnyagu in Literature and the Literate, observes that literature creates empathy and
understanding. He believes that literature writers use imaginary persons to represent real persons
in real society (12). Like in real life, the imaginary characters struggle to come out of imposed
conflicts and the audience reads to decode the real society and understand how to tackle similar
problems through the struggles of fictional characters. This is why many critics believe that
literature improves the human mind so that when someone reads, he or she literally reads the
mind of others. This is because through the character’s internal thoughts which the reader seeks
to access, the mind of individuals in real life is understood and an individual in real life
understands a lot about himself or herself, others and the society at large.

To Kennedy, X.J, Dana Gioia and Mark Bauerlein in their Handbook of Literary Terms:
Literature, Language, Theory, Fiction (literature)helps to improve society as it imparts a world
spun out of the author’s imagination (64). They believe that although fiction (literature) could be
based on imagination, it thrives on reality and the author fictionalizes reality in a way that
improvement is made. In the same vein, literature demystifies the author’s society in such a way
that one who has not been to a particular society can understand the society via literature. This is
why the Yoruba who had not been to the Igbo society but had read Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall
Apart disclosed to his friends that he would like to marry two Igbo women. Amazed, one of his
friends cared to know why he preferred Igbo women as his wives, the Yoruba man responded
that Igbo women are submissive to their husbands, hence his reason for the choice. Still
incoherent to the friends, they asked him how he managed to know so much about Igbo women
when he had not been to the Igbo society and he had not known Igbo people well, the Yoruba
man responded that he does not need to live in Igbo society to understand the way of life of the
Igbo when one could read a good novel authored by an Igbo. According to him, Okonkwo in
Things Fall Apart married three wives and the three wives of Okonkwo remained submissive to
him. The Yoruba man is right to an extent but definitely, he fails to realise that society is
dynamic and that Achebe in the novel, represented life as it was lived in the early nineteenth
century. It is incongruous to align Things Fall Apart with the contemporary Igbo society. The
entire world is dynamic and Igbo society like other societies of the world has greatly changed.
Today, Igbo ladies abhor polygamy and no Igbo woman would accept to share the love of her



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man with any other woman. Today, polygamy is almost seen as a taboo in Igbo land and some
other African societies, because the white man, after colonization, made some Africans believe
that their tradition, including polygamy was evil. Many Igbo people today who were ignorant of
the way of life of the Igbo in the past would read Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart and see life
as it was lived by the traditional Igbo people in Igbo society then. That is the function of
literature – to enable us understand life. Today, to understand any part of the contemporary
society, works by contemporary authors from the society are read and dissected for easier
understanding of the society. Literature therefore, allows a person to step back in time and learn
about life. We can gather a better understanding of culture and have a greater appreciation of
them through literature. We learn through the ways history is recorded, in forms of manuscripts
and through speech itself.

Scholars are of the opinion that the level of civilization a society attains is dependent on the
literacy level of the members of the society. Literature is an art, written to include works in
various non-fiction genres, used to pass across messages to the expected audience. This is
literature in the broader sense which further includes non-fictional books, articles or other printed
information. This being the case, literature concerns everyone who is able to read and understand
that which is written. Some societies remain undeveloped because of the illiteracy level of their
citizens. Literature is simply an eye opener and as Matthew Arnold observed, it helps to
disillusion a folk who had been living in illusion (in Abrams A Glossary of Literary Terms, 124).
A deep study of Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart reveals that the Igbos in the nineteenth
century were mainly polygamists and that the women were not jealous sharing the love of their
husbands. Okonkwo is used by Achebe to symbolize the Igbo who never believed that polygamy
was a bad thing. He married three wives and the three wives were submissive to him. We
understand a lot about the traditional Igbo people in traditional Igbo society through Chinua
Achebe’s Things Fall Apart. Ernest Emenyonu in his The Rise of the Igbo Novel writes that
Achebe’s novels, including Things Fall Apart, are set in historical perspective and they reflect
the process of change in Igbo society from the mid-nineteenth century to the 1960s (104).
According to him, “Things Fall Apart (1958), is set at a time when the early Europeans were first
coming to Igbo land” (104). Okonkwo in the novel married three wives and he is held in high
esteem unlike his monogamous father Unoka who is rather derided for being monogamous as a
result that he is lazy. Unoka’s laziness made him to be looked down by the people. He married
only one wife and could not even maintain his lone hut. Unoka not being praised for having only
one wife is a clear indication that in a typical Igbo society during the era, it was almost not a
good thing to have only one wife. Comparing Things Fall Apart to Ifeoma Okoye’s Behind the
Clouds, we observe that a great change exists between the Igbo society in the 19th century and
the same Igbo society in the 20th century. In Okoye’s era, as a result of colonial influence, men
are expected to have only one wife each in line with Timothy Aluko’s One Man, One Wife.

Though a work of art, literature (on a narrower sense), mirrors society and allows us to better
understand the world we live in. Literature acts as a form of expression for each individual



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author. An author is inspired by what happens around him, hence his work mirrors what happens
in his or her society. Writers of literature, according to Chinua Achebe in his “Novelist as a
Teacher”, act as teachers and educators who use their literature to expose certain occurrences in
their societies (103). As well, literature writers use their invented characters to educate the
audience on the impending dangers in the society.

Literature is a source of entertainment. Readers of novels get entertained when they read, we are
equally entertained when we watch movies or listen to performers of poetry. Even before the
coming of the Europeans to Africa, in many parts of Africa, raconteurs were paid to entertain the
audience with interesting stories. But then, entertainment is not the top priority of literature.
Critics believe that literature, above other functions, should educate. Bernard Shaw, for instance,
is quoted in Patrick Murray’s Literary Criticism as saying “but unless comedy touches me as
well as amuses me, it leaves me with a sense of having wasted my evening” (30). Good literature
is that whose major priority is to educate. Critics such as Shaw and Perrine admit that literature
should, in addition to education it offers, also entertain. Perrine adds that when the sole function
of literature becomes entertainment, such literature does not worth any attention. In his words, if
drama (literature) offers only entertainment without enlightenment, it seems to me as though it is
a mere waste of time (3). By enlightenment, Perrine believes that literature should educate the
audience about the happenings and occurrences in a society and then proffer a solution to any
envisaged ill.

Literature as an Indispensable Tool for Curbing the Spread of Coronavirus

It is a fact undisputed that literature is a means for societal reformation. As authors are inspired
by what happens in their societies, their works profusely reflect on their societies. Literature is
interested in societal ills and it criticizes the ills in such a way that there would be reformation.
Today, coronavirus is a cankerworm ravaging the entire world. People’s lives are endangered
and every society is in perpetual fear because of the outbreak of the virus. Borders were closed to
stop movement of people from a place to another as to ensure the stoppage of the spread of the
virus. Continued closure of borders would rather cause more hardship to the people as continued
lockdown would not do the people of the world any good. With language, measures on how to
curb the spread of corona virus are relayed to those who understand the language. Part of the
measures of curbing the spread of the virus includes:

i. Wearing of the facemask

ii. Constant hand washing in running water

iii. Sanitization of the hand

iv. Maintaining social distancing



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v. Avoiding handshake and hugging

vi. Avoiding crowded areas

The above measures are to be strictly adhered to ensure that society is rid of the pandemic. To be
able to disseminate the information, literature writers must use language that easily captures the
intended message. They must understand that the essence of literature is to communicate and not
basically to impress. With spoken language only, the information could not be effectively
disseminated with effective result. Literature writers use language effectively in their literature to
achieve good results. The onus therefore, is on the writers to write about the dangers of the virus,
the spread of the virus and the possible means of putting a stop to the spread. To pass the
information well, the writer of a novel, for instance, invents characters who are recalcitrant and
who refuse to observe the precautionary measures of COVID-19 and so, they end up contracting
the virus.

Literature writers, when in their works of art, hype the sufferings of those who out of their
deliberate acts of recalcitrance, contracted the virus, and they also hype the pains the victims
pass through, it will go a long way achieving the goal as the audience reads the literature and
gets educated. This is why it is believed that literature reforms. Anybody who reads such didactic
works of art and sees the hyped sufferings of the careless characters and of course, how they
ended as fantastically presented by the writer would certainly be educated and corrections be
made. Critics believe that literature writers have as their responsibility, to use their works to
educate.

As Chinua Achebe in “Novelist as Teacher,” enjoined African writers to mirror their societies in
their literature and ensure that they use their literature to reform their societies (104), this article
has thus, concentrated on how Covid-19 has affected different societies in the world as well as
suggesting ways of salvaging the societies and ensuring that the virus seizes to spread.
According to David Ker in his Literature and Society in Africa, “Achebe’s conception of the role
of the artist in Africa is not different from that of most of his fellow writers. The modern African
writer is the product of his species. This is best exemplified in Wole Soyinka (7).

The African critics underscore the indispensability of literature as a means of reformation and
education. Ker echoed Achebe that the writer cannot be excused from the task of re-education
and re-generation that must be done. According to Ker, the writer should march right in front. By
marching right in front, Ker suggests that writers should write about what happens in their
societies in such a way that through the writing, the members of the audience are educated (7-8).

In early 2020, after a December 2019 outbreak in China, the World Health Organization
identified SARS-CoV-2 as a new type of corona virus. The outbreak immediately spread round
the entire world. The spread was rapid, mainly through person-to-person contact, with the virus
ranging from mild to deadly. Since the outbreak of the COVID-19, many writers have in their
various works of art, mirrored the dangers of the virus as well as its mode of spread with the



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intent to curb the spread. Chris Bohjalian, a writer and a newspaper contributor, affirming that
literature is the best weapon for fighting the spread of corona virus, says:

Someday soon, we are going to be turning the pages of this newspaper and will spot a
review for a book about the pandemic spring of 2020. Already, the nonfiction accounts
are on their way, with their chronicles of the virus’s spread across the globe and the
missed opportunities to contain it. As the New York Times recently reported, Fang Fang’s
“Wuhan Diary” arrived this month, with Debora MacKenzie’s “Covid-19: the Pandemic
that Never Should Have Happened” not far behind.
The novels will come next.
I say this because we novelists depend upon journalists and historians to help us
understand what really happened. Inside the fictional structures I build are framing,
wiring and plumbing that make a house a home, and a lot of what resides behind the
fictional wallpaper and Sheetrock is what actually happened. Or could happen (28)

Bohjalian, by the above statement, is of the opinion that a literature writer does not work in
isolation, he depends on the journalists and historians as well as on his physical experience. The
partnership can only be possible when language is involved. Christopher Bollen in an article
about Chris Bohjalian’s thriller novel, The Red Lotus, writes that Bohjalian possesses one of the
best-tuned antennas in contemporary fiction for absorbing the troubles…. (87).The Red Lotus, is
described as a novel packed with deadly pathogens and paranoiac animal-to-human
transmissions, was released right as New York City was shutting down over the spread of Covid-
19. The author chronicled the dangers of the virus as well as educated the audience on the
precautionary measures. Bohjalian’s and other literary works have contributed a lot in fighting
against the spread of the pandemic. Without literature writers in a society, the society keeps
wallowing in perpetual darkness.

Ker says that the old questions about the efficacy of literature in solving our contemporary
problems have reappeared also in the form of questions about the relevance of our literature
written in English to contribute materially to the development of our culture (33). In this era of
coronavirus, writers all over the world have the responsibility of incorporating the theme of
coronavirus pandemic in their works of literature. According to Robin Brooks, an Assistant
Professor in the Department of African Studies, after Covid-19 changed the world, Brooks
decided the edition could cover works from the past in ways that they examine what is happening
today, particularly issues surrounding Black lives. Speaking on the responsibility of writers in
the face of Covid-19, Brooks said that some people can see it in the sad sense, that some of the
very issues that they have been tackling in their work for decades are still here. They are still
major issues within the lives of Black people, of course in the United States, but around the
world. According to Brooks, this Covid-19 moment has outlined them but their work is still very
much relevant to what we are facing in our lives right now (Wikipedia).



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In conclusion, Covid-19 has brought a lot of hardship to the entire world. The economic and
social disruption caused by the pandemic is devastating. Millions of people are at risk of falling
into extreme poverty. The year 2020 thus has remained a history in the annals of the whole world.
It was a year of total lockdown occasioned by the outbreak of the novel virus, Covid-19. The
Covid-19 pandemic hogged the headlines through much of 2020, and we still have n0t seen the
end. Covid-19 enthroned fear in every society of the world. Intra and inter country migration was
banned and hardship became prominent in different societies of the world. Writers of literature
are tasked with the responsibility to write literatures whose themes would gear towards ensuring
that the pandemic is laid to rest. As gadflies, literary artists are interested in misdeeds and
abnormalities in society with the intent to remedy such through their writings. Now that Covid-
19 is ravaging the entire world, it is recommended that literary artists should integrate the theme
of the threats of covid-19 and the mode of spread in their writings. The way the writers hype the
dangers of covid-19 will make the entire society understand the need to follow the precautionary
measures so as not to fall victim.

Literature writers must always remember that the essence of writing is to communicate. When
literature fails to communicate, it becomes effort in futility. To be able to communicate, writers
of literature should use appropriate language that would enhance understanding. Literature
should be made to inform and not to impress.

Works Cited

Abrams, M. H. A Glossary of Literary Terms: Thomson Wadsworth, 2005.

Achebe, Chinua. Things Fall Apart: Heinemann, 1958.

_____________. “Novelist as a Teacher” in Olaniyan, Tejumola and Ato Quayoson’s African
Literature: an Anthology of Criticism and Theory: Blackwell, 2002.

Bohjalian, Chris. The Red Lotus. Penguin, 2020.

Emenyonu, Ernest. The Rise of the Igbo Novel. Heinemann, 1987.

Ker, David. Literature and Society. Spectrum, 2004.

Kadiri, G.C. “Style in the Nigerian Novels”. In E.J. Otagburuagu, L.C. Ogenyi& J.C. Ogbodo
(eds.), Exploration on Styles, Stylistics and the Language of Literature.Benak Publishers,
2014.



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Kennedy, X. J, Dana Gioia& Mark Bauerlein. Handbook of Literary Terms: Literature,
Language, Theory: Longman, 2008.

Nnyagu, Uche. Mediocrities: Alpus Prints, 2019.

__________. Literature and the Literate: Scholars, 2018.

Perrine, Laurence. Literature: Structure, Sound and Sense 3rd edn: Harcourt Brace, 1978.

Robbins, L. A. Grammar and Style at your Finger-tips: Penguin Group, 2007.

Sapir, Edward. Language: an Introduction to the Study of Speech: Harcourt, Brace and
Company. 1921.

Shklovsky, Victor. Bowstring: on the Dissimilarity of the Similar: Dalkey, 2011.

Sweet, Henry. History of Language: Dent JM, 1916.

Widdowson, H. G. Stylistics and the Teaching of Literature: Longman, 1975.