A Critical Discourse Analysis of Ideology and Meaning in Selected Novels of Chinua Achebe
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A CRITICAL DISCOURSE ANALYSIS OF IDEOLOGY AND MEANING IN SELECTED NOVELS OF CHINUA ACHEBE BY Ndubuisi Hyginus ONYEMELUKWE MATRIC. NO. 125822 B.A.(Hons.)ED./ENGLISH(UNN); M.A.ENGLISH(LANGUAGE)(IBADAN) UNIVERSITY OF IBADAN NOVEMBER, 2011 A CRITICAL DISCOURSE ANALYSIS OF IDEOLOGY AND MEANING IN SELECTED NOVELS OF CHINUA ACHEBE BY Ndubuisi Hyginus ONYEMELUKWE MATRIC. NO. 125822 B.A.(Hons.)ED./ENGLISH(UNN); M.A.ENGLISH(LANGUAGE)(IBADAN) A DISSERTATION PRESENTED IN THE DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH TO THE FACULTY OF ARTS, UNIVERSITY OF IBADAN, NIGERIA IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE AWARD OF THE MASTER OF PHILOSOPHY DEGREE IN ENGLISH (DISCOURSE ANALYSIS) UNIVERSITY OF NOVEMBER IBADAN, 2011 i CERTIFICATION I certify that this dissertation has been written under my supervision and that it is a record of the author‟s research work. It has not been presented for the award of a higher degree, elsewhere. All quotations are indicated and the sources of information are specifically acknowledged by means of reference. _________________________ _________________ Supervisor Date M. A. Alo, Ph.D. Department of English, Faculty of Arts University of Ibadan, Ibadan, Nigeria UNIVERSITY OF IBADAN ii DEDICATION To the Blessed Memories of my dear parents: Mr. & Mrs. S.U. and J.U. Onyemelukwe and my beloved brothers: Messrs Jerome & Fredrick Onyemelukwe UNIVERSITY OF IBADAN iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENT In the course of accomplishing this research work, I made crucial references to relevant scholarly works. The authors of those works, including my lecturers at the post-graduate level, are hereby acknowledged and appreciated. In addition to the references, I was in constant consultation with Dr. M.A. Alo, former Head of Department (English), University of Ibadan. Hence, I specifically place on record, here, his invaluable supervisory contribution to this dissertation. Also highly appreciated for patiently typesetting the dissertation and for her indispensable general support, is my sweet heart, Mrs. J.N. Onyeka-Ubaka of the Department of Mathematics, Faculty of Science, University of Lagos. Moreover, I acknowledge the benevolence and financial contributions of my relatives, friends and well wishers, especially those of Barrister Collins Ezuluka of blessed memory, Dr. & Mrs. F.I.Obijiofor, Chief & Mrs. F.E. Amaefuna, Arch. & Mrs. C. OnuChukwu as well as Principal & Mrs. Iyke Ifediniru. Furthermore, I express most profound gratitude to my ever-ready mentors: Dr. R.O. Oriaku and Mr. S.O. Solanke, both of the Department of English, Faculty of Arts, University of Ibadan. Their wise counsel is indeed highly appreciated. Above all, I give the ultimate glory for this research work to The Almighty God: The Holy One of Israel—The God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob—for His immense felt and unfelt providence. UNIVERSITY OF IBADAN iv ABSTRACT Most previous studies on Chinua Achebe‟s novels have largely concentrated on thematic 1 preoccupations, especially inter-cultural conflicts in Africa. Some of the works focus on ideology 2 and meaning with emphasis on cultural nationalism. Nevertheless, they have not yet objectified the relationship between the ideological contents of Achebe‟s novels and the discourse patterns 3 reflected in the novels. This study, therefore, critically investigates more of the ideologies and 4 underlying meanings mirrored in three of Achebe‟s novels, the objective being to highlight this relationship and their implications for nation-building in Nigeria. 5 The study adopts a theoretical framework that combines Van Djik‟s model of Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) with Michael Halliday‟s Systemic Functional Theory. The former 6 enhances a broad social, cognitive and political interpretation of underlying ideologies in texts, while the latter lays emphasis on meaning. The framework facilitates the identification of largely 7 socio-political ideologies and implicit meanings reflected in texts. The purposive sampling 8 technique was applied to select Achebe‟s Things Fall Apart (TFA), A Man of the People (AMOP), and Anthills of the Savannah (AOS), perceived to be richer in ideological and implicit meanings 9 than his other novels. One thousand, one hundred and seventy-two sentences with salient ideological and/or implicit meanings were identified in the texts out of which 250, chosen by 10 means of simple random sampling, were analysed. A content analysis of these sentences covered 11 the morphological, lexical, syntactic, rhetorical, and semantic levels. Some of the ideological contents in the selected sentences in the novels are despotism, 12 chauvinism, and racism, the first of which is the central discourse field of the three novels. This embodies a dictatorial right-wing socio-political ideology that characterises military and civilian 13 rules in Africa. Socio-culturally, despotism manifests in the patriarchal leadership system in which women and children are respectively at the mercy of their husbands and fathers as exemplified by 14 Okonkwo‟s household in TFA. While this form of leadership is criticised in the novels for its 15 multiple demerits like imposition, intolerance, subjugation and bullying, the left-wing socio- political ideology of participatory democracy is implicitly foregrounded, because it promotes a 16 general positive attitude to life. At the lexical and morphological levels, Achebe achieves these elements by means of compounding (“big-chief”), neologisms (“negrophobist”) and lexical 17 metaphors (“national cake,” “the roaring flame”). Achebe also passionately faults despotism and 18 other right-wing ideologies at the syntactic and rhetorical levels by means of topicalisation (“women are their own worst enemies”); nominalisation (“worshipping a dictator”) and passive 19 syntax (“speeches made in vernacular were liable to be distorted and misquoted in the press”), to give the major underlying message that democracy is the only acceptable socio-political ideology. 20 Several instances of ambiguity polarise some implicit meanings in the novels. For example, an ambiguous expression like „all of you‟ intratextually, in TFA, refers to the tortoise or a group of 21 birds to signify credulity or greed. The texts also reflect insinuations (“it is in the place of the poor 22 man to make a visit to the rich who holds the yam and the knife”) that implicitly highlight the values of silence, wisdom, and sensible socio-political agitation as largely reflected in AOS and 23 AMOP. Achebe‟s TFA, AMOP and AOS contain profound implicit and largely socio-political 24 ideological meanings, which Nigeria as a nation can appropriate to make her democracy truly participatory. The analysis of the texts has also confirmed that a CDA unearths such meanings. 25 26 Key wordsUNIVERSITY: Chinua Achebe, Participatory democracy, Lexical OF metaphor IBADAN, Topicalisation, Nominalisation 27 Word count: 497 v 28 29 30 31 32 TABLE OF CONTENTS Title Page i Certification ii Dedication iii Acknowledgement iv Abstract v Table of Contents vi List of Tables and Figures ix CHAPTER ONE: GENERAL INTRODUCTION TO THE STUDY 1 - 8 1.1 Background to the Study 1 - 2 1.2 Statement of the Problem 3 - 5 1.3 Objectives of the Study 6 1.4 Scope of the Study 6 1.5 Significance of the Study 7 1.6 Methodology 7 1.7 Conclusion 8 CHAPTER TWO: A CRITICAL REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURES AND THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK 9 - 48 2.0 Introduction 9 2.1 A Critical Review of Related Literatures 9 - 17 2.1.1 The Purpose of the Review 9 2.1.2 Delimitation of the Review and Justification 9 - 10 2.1.3 TheUNIVERSITY Themes of Achebe‟s Novels OF IBADAN 10 - 15 2.1.4 Achebe‟s Literary Prose Style in Scholarly Perspectives 15 - 16 vi 2.1.5 Essential Insights from the Review 16 - 17 2.2 Theoretical Framework: Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) Combined with the Systemic Functional Theory (SFT) 17 -48 2.2.1 Classification of Key Concepts 17 -18 2.2.2 Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) 18 -36 2.2.3 Ideology as a Concept 37 - 42 2.2.4 Van Djik‟s Model of CDA and Dell Hymes‟ Ethnography of Communication 43 - 45 2.2.5 The Systemic Functional Theory (SFT) 45 - 48 2.3 Conclusion 48 CHAPTER THREE: PRELIMINARY INSIGHTS- ACHEBE AND HIS NOVELS IN CONTEXT 49 -71 3.0 Introduction 49 3.1 Biographical Profile of Chinua Achebe 49 - 52 3.2 The Novels of Achebe in Context 52 -56 3.3 The Story Lines of Achebe‟s TFA, AMOP and AOS 56 - 65 3.4 Chinua Achebe‟s Political Philosophy 65 - 67 3.5 Achebe‟s Major Ideological Perspectives in His Novels 67 - 69 3.6 Conclusion 70 - 71 CHAPTER FOUR: LINGUISTIC FORMS AND IDEOLOGIES IN ACHEBE‟S TFA, AMOP AND AOS 72 - 152 4.0 Introduction 72 4.1 Morphological Analysis 72 - 88 4.2 Use of Lexical Metaphors 88 -105 4.3 Use of the Rhetorical Devices of Topicalisation and Nominalisation 105 -152 4.3.1 Topicalisation 106 - 135 4.3.2 NominalisationUNIVERSITY OF IBADAN 136 -152 4.4 Conclusion 152 vii CHAPTER FIVE: UNDERLYING MEANINGS AND INTERTEXTUALITY IN ACHEBE‟S TFA, AMOP AND AOS 153 - 217 5.0 Introduction 153 5.1 Use of Passive Syntax 153 - 172 5.2 Ambiguities and Insinuations 172 - 188 5.3 Intertextual Analysis 188 - 211 5.4 Achebe‟s Syntactic Motifs 212 - 216 5.5 Conclusion 216 - 217 CHAPTER SIX: SUMMARY OF FINDINGS, CONCLUSION AND IMPLICATIONS OF THE STUDY 218 - 235 6.0 Introduction 218 6.1General Highlights of the Study 218 - 219 6.2 Ideological Insights from the Study 219 - 221 6.3 MODES OF MEANING AND LINGUISTIC DEVICES 221 - 225 6.3.1 Morphlogical Devices 221 - 222 6.3.2 Lexical Metaphorical Devices 222 - 223 6.3.3 Topicalisation and Nominalisation Devices 223 - 224 6.3.4 Other Syntatic