FACULTY OF ARTS

The study is based on the impact of Netflix in the advancement of the Nigerian movie industry. The study analyzes the impact of Netflix on Nollywood and how it has aided the growth of the industry amongst youths in Benin City. This study examines the role of Netflix in advancing the Nigerian movie industry by analyzing its impact on film production, distribution, and audience engagement.The motive of this research was further explained by the researcher using diffusion of innovation theory. The research draws insights from existing empirical studies and emphasizes how Netflix provides a structured platform for global exposure, encourages higher production standards, and opens new economic opportunities for filmmakers through funding and partnerships. By situating Nollywood within the global digital entertainment landscape, this study highlights how Netflix is not only reshaping viewing patterns but also positioning the Nigerian movie industry as a competitive player on the world stage.

This study, titled Comparative Assessment of Antonyms in Udi Dialect of Igbo, investigates the nature, structure, and dialectal realization of antonymy within the Udi dialect, with comparative reference to Standard Igbo. The research was motivated by the need to describe how oppositional meaning, a key component of semantic organization, manifests across dialectal variations within the Igbo language. Despite extensive studies on Igbo grammar and phonology, little attention has been given to the comparative semantics of dialects, particularly in the area of antonymy. The study employed both Lexical Semantic Theory and Dialectological Theory as its analytical frameworks. The Lexical Semantic Theory provided a structural explanation for meaning opposition within the lexicon, while the Dialectological Theory accounted for the influence of regional variation on phonological and morphological realization. Data were obtained through oral elicitation from ten native speakers of the Udi dialect and analyzed qualitatively. The collected data were grouped into four categories of antonyms—gradable, complementary, relational, and contextual—to capture the full semantic range of oppositional relationships. Findings revealed that antonymy in the Udi dialect operates within a highly systematic semantic structure comparable to that of Standard Igbo. The dialect demonstrates strong semantic stability but exhibits phonological and morphological reduction, characterized by syllable shortening, tonal simplification, and vowel elision. Across all categories, oppositional meanings remained constant, indicating that dialectal variation in Igbo affects form rather than meaning. The study concludes that antonymy serves as both a structural constant and a dialectal identifier within Igbo, confirming the resilience of meaning relations across linguistic varieties. It is therefore recommended that further research extend comparative analysis to other Igbo dialects to build a more comprehensive understanding of meaning relations and to support the preservation of dialectal diversity within the Igbo language.

This research analyses the 2023 UNIBEN staging of Ola Rotimi’s If: A Tragedy of the Ruled as protest theatre to confront systemic poverty in Nigeria. Through TfD’s participatory lens. The production, performed by 200-level students exposed poverty as elite-orchestrated betrayal rather than personal failure, using satire, Pidgin choral resistance, and direct audience address to dramatize healthcare collapse, gendered exploitation, and inflation-driven evictions. Script and observational analysis reveal how the tenement microcosm sparked conscientization, viral discourse, and micro-petitions, while challenging “education ends poverty” myths amid graduate joblessness. Yet resource constraints, urban-academic isolation, and solution deficits limited impact. Marking the first documented Nigerian university use of canonical protest theatre for direct poverty advocacy, findings highlight theatre’s power to forge empathy and agency

This study presents a stylistic analysis of Chigozie Obioma’s An Orchestra of Minorities, focusing on his use of language, proverbs, characterisation, imagery and symbolism, narrative structure. Obioma’s blending of English, Igbo, and Nigerian Pidgin through code- switching and code-mixing serves as a means of revealing the cultural and social Identity of the characters. Obioma’s deployment of proverbial expression helps to position his narrative within Igbo traditional storytelling method and serves to impart moral lessons, exploring theme such as destiny, communal bonds, and spirituality. The characters, especially, Chinonso and his spiritual guide(Chi) are rendered with considerable depth. The narrative is rich in symbolism which are derived from Igbo beliefs to illustrate core themes such as fate, suffering, and resilience. The narrative developes through non-linear structure, narrated by Chinonso’s Chi. This narrative choice provides a unique point surpassing the constraints of linear time. The novel is set in Nigeria and Cyprus which highlights the contrasting changes between tradition and modernity. This analysis demonstrates how Obioma’s distinct style is not merely aesthetic but inherently linked to the narrative’s central themes which presents the novel’s significance within contemporary African literature. It further emphasises the value placed on traditional storytelling within a postcolonial context

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