FACULTY OF ARTS

The aim of this study was to examine body part polysemy in Igbo with a view to understanding how linguistic and cultural meanings are extended across contexts. The objectives of the study were to identify commonly used body part terms in the Igbo language that exhibit polysemous behavior, analyze patterns of semantic extension, investigate linguistic and cultural factors influencing meaning shift, and examine how these terms function in proverbs, idioms, and everyday expressions. Despite its insightful findings, the study is limited to selected body part terms in central Igbo and focuses mainly on semantic analysis, without covering all dialects, linguistic levels, or extensive data sources. The study also compared the patterns observed in Igbo with those reported in other languages. Using Prototype Theory and Conceptual Metaphor and Metonymy Theory as its theoretical framework, data for the study were gathered from ten Igbo native speakers aged 25 to 65 years through informal interviews, supplemented by participant observation. The findings reveal that body part terms in Igbo extend beyond their literal meanings and are used in proverbs and idiomatic expressions to convey cultural values and worldviews. This shows the deep connection between language, thought, and culture in the Igbo linguistic system. The study recommends that future researchers explore body part polysemy across other Igbo dialects and expand the range of terms analyzed using larger data sources. The study concludes that body part polysemy

This study establishes Odia Ofeimun as a consummate satirist through an analysis of his poetry collection, The Poet Lied. Employing the sociological theory of literature, this study examines how Ofeimun uses satire to critique three key sectors of Nigerian society: the clergy, for promoting a false religion in “Paradise for the Aladuras”; the political class, for their empty promises and false messianism in “A Serious Matter” and “The Messiahs”; and the privileged elite, for their brutal and futile greed in “After the News.” The study concludes that Ofeimun’s poetry serves as a powerful mirror, using sharp irony and vivid imagery to expose societal failings and affirm his standing as a critical voice in African literature.

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This study presents a corpus-assisted thematic analysis of Angie Thomas’ novel, The Hate U Give, investigating the linguistic and thematic construction of racism, systemic injustice, identity crisis, and poverty. Employing a mixed-methods approach, the research integrates qualitative literary interpretation with Critical Race Theory (CRT) and quantitative data derived from Voyant Tools to explore the novel's vocabulary and statistical features. The analysis reveals that the theme of racism is dominant, with high-frequency terms like "Cops" collocating heavily with violent indicators such as "tear," "gas," and "death," while the concept of "justice" is linguistically bound almost exclusively to the victim, Khalil. Furthermore, the study examines the protagonist’s fragmented identity, demonstrating how code-switching between African American Vernacular English (AAVE) and Standard English is used to navigate the segregated worlds of Garden Heights and Williamson Prep until trauma forces these personas to collapse. significantly, the research highlights the often-overlooked theme of poverty, using lexical indicators to frame it as a cyclical survival trap where characters are forced to choose between the "legitimate hustle" and the "street hustle" to meet basic needs like "lights and food". The study concludes that Thomas utilizes specific linguistic patterns to map social inequality, providing measurable evidence that systemic oppression and economic scarcity are foundational to the narrative structure

This study explored the psychological dimensions of identity and social demarcation in Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Purple Hibiscus and Lola Shoneyin’s The Secret Lives of Baba Segi’s Wives through the lens of Sigmund Freud’s psychoanalytic theory. The research investigated how gender, religion, culture, and trauma interact to shape and suppress individual identity within patriarchal Nigerian societies. Using a qualitative analytical method, the study interpreted both novels as narratives of psychological repression and gradual self-recovery, where silence became both a symptom of trauma and a path toward liberation. In Purple Hibiscus, Kambili Achike’s identity is fractured by her father Eugene’s religious authoritarianism, forcing her into silence, fear, and repression. Freud’s theory elucidates her internal conflict between the id’s desire for freedom and the superego’s moral constraints . In contrast, The Secret Lives of Baba Segi’s Wives presented Bolanle, an educated woman trapped in a polygamous household, whose infertility and trauma symbolized the intersection of psychological pain and social exclusion. Her repression, rooted in sexual violence and patriarchal expectations, evolved into defiance as she reclaims agency through self-awareness and truth-telling. The analyses demonstrated that both Kambili and Bolanle navigated identity crises shaped by familial control, gendered oppression, silence, and trauma, yet both achieved psychological rebirth through acts of resistance and voice reclamation. The study concluded that identity in these texts is not static but continually reconstructed through the negotiation between inner desire and societal constraint. Using Freudian psychoanalytic perspectives, this research contributes a new interpretive model to African feminist and postcolonial literary studies—revealing how silence, repression, and trauma operated not merely as forms of subjugation, but also as precursors to self-realization and liberation in contemporary Nigerian fiction.

Insanity possesses its own peculiar beauty and serves as a powerful instrument in literature, revealing hidden truths about the human condition, this study investigates the aesthetics and utilitarian values of narrating insanity in selected short stories: Edgar
Allan Poe’s “The Tell-Tale Heart” and “The Black Cat”, Nikolai Gogol’s “Diary of a Madman”, Chinua Achebe’s “The Madman”, and Adekunle Mamudu’s “The Beauty of Madness”. It examines how madness functions not merely as a psychological or pathological condition but as a narrative technique, a thematic instrument, and a philosophical metaphor. The research situates insanity as oth an artistic medium and a utilitarian tool that enables the exploration of social, moral, and existential tensions within diverse cultural contexts. Anchored in psychoanalytic literary theory, drawing particularly from the ideas of Sigmund Freud and Jacques Lacan, the study interprets madness as a manifestation of repressed desires, fractured identities, and unconscious
resistance to societal norms. Through close textual analysis, it investigates how anger, frustration, and the collapse of reason serve as emotional and structural forces that drive each story’s form and content. The study adopts a qualitative methodology, relying on close reading, interpretation, and comparative analysis to unpack how each author constructs madness as a mode of critique and revelation. The findings reveal that narrating insanity operates at the level of aesthetics usefulness in exploring human consciousness and societal dysfunction. Madness, as represented in these stories, becomes a creative discourse on identity, alienation, corruption, and the instability of reason. Ultimately, the study asserts that madness in literature is not a deviation from
meaning but a deepening of it — a poetic method of confronting truths that sanity often conceals

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This study examines how the combination of language, images, and spatial layout convey messages of religious beliefs, values, and practices in Deeper Life Christian Women Mirror. This study employs Multimodal Critical Discourse Analysis (MCDA) theory to analyze Deeper Life Christian Women Mirror studying how various messages are conveyed through different modes of communication like images, layouts, texts, and gestures e.t.c. This systematic approach merges different analytical tools such as Multimodal Discourse Analysis (MDA),Critical Discourse Analysis(CDA), and Systemic Functional Linguistics(SFL). This study is limited to five physical copies of Deeper Life Christian Women Mirror, issued in 2024-2025, primarily from local Deeper Life Bible Church branches in Benin City, focusing on the themes of principles for spiritual growth, healthy living and child nurturing. These collected copies will be subjected to a systematic multimodal discourse analysis (MDA), drawing on theoretical frameworks primarily from Gunther Kress and Theo van Leeuwen, recognizing that meaning is simultaneously constructed through multiple semiotic modes beyond just written language. Moreover, this study focuses on specific sections of the magazine such as articles on spiritual growth, child training and health talk e.t.c. It samples the data derived from close reading of the texts and the photographs of the images in Deeper Life Christian Women Mirror.

This research explores the intricate relationship between human freedom and spiritual determinism within the framework of African metaphysics. It examines whether human beings can act freely in a universe governed by mystical beings such as ancestors, deities, and spirits, who are believed to influence destiny and moral conduct. The study departs from Western dualisms that separate freedom and determinism, proposing instead a relational understanding grounded in African ontology. African metaphysical thought views existence as holistic and interconnected, where the physical and spiritual realms coexist in continuous interaction. Within this worldview, mystical beings are not tyrannical forces dictating fate but moral agents who guide human behavior, ensure justice, and maintain cosmic harmony. Human destiny (chi, akala, ori) is understood not as an unchangeable script but as a divine framework within which individuals exercise will, responsibility, and moral choice. Through philosophical analysis and interpretation of African cosmology, this research reveals that freedom in African thought is not the absence of constraint but the responsible participation in the moral and spiritual order of existence. True freedom is realized when individuals act ethically, align with communal values, and harmonize their personal will with the divine purpose. The study concludes that man can indeed act freely in the world of mystic beings, but such freedom is relational, moral, and deeply contextual. It affirms a vision of human existence where agency is exercised within divine order, and where freedom finds its fullest expression through cooperation with the unseen forces that shape reality

This study explores the representation of trauma and identity crisis in Okey Ndibe’s Arrows of Rain and Richard Wright’s Native Son. It examines how both authors employ narrative technique to portray the psychological fragmentation of individuals struggling under repressive sociopolitical structures. In Arrows of Rain, Ndibe situates trauma within the postcolonial African landscape, exposing how state violence, corruption, and moral decay deform both personal and collective consciousness. Conversely, Wright’s Native Son situates trauma in a racially stratified America, where systemic oppression and poverty shape the disintegration of Black identity. Through close textual analysis, the research reveals that both authors transform narrative into a means of resistance— employing silence, symbolism, memory, and stream of consciousness to articulate suffering that language itself often fails to express. The study concludes that literature serves not merely as an artistic mirror of pain but as an act of reclaiming voice and agency within a world structured to silence the oppressed.