FACTS AND FICTION IN AKACHI ADIMORA – EZEIGBO’S CHILDREN OF THE EAGLE AND THE LAST OF THE STRONG ONES (ENGLISH AND LINGUISTIC PROJECT TOPICS AND MATERIALS)
ABSTRACT
This research work addressed itself to the way people tend to see fictional works. People see fictional works as being fictitious, but they are over laid with fact. This long essay, using Akachi Adimora. Ezeigbo’s works as guide, demonstrated the impact of the intermeddling of fact with fiction in literary works. They do not always obstruct each other and when harnessed depending on the ingenuity of the artist they can serve multiple purposes. The sociological socialist realism theory is used in this research work because real and factual events in Ezeigbo’s life are contained in her works. Ezeigbo make use of the Igbo setting. There are names proverbs, idioms and practices that epitomize the Igbo culture and Igbo world view. Her works are linked between her fiction and her lived experience. The major source of her stories is her own direct experience through fiction. Oral Aesthetics is highly portrayed in Ezeigbo’s works in her constant use of songs, proverbs, lullabies and the Igbo cultural setting. This study has shown that Akachi Adimora Ezeigbo, a fictional writer wrote about her own personal experiences in her novels and short stories.
CHAPTER ONE
1.1 INTRODUCTION
Literature is studied for various reasons. It covers all aspects of human life. It is all-embracing and encapsulating. It contains artistic truth, which is better than historical truth. An artistic truth applies to every situation of life while historical truth appeals to a specific situation of life.
A quality of Akachi Ezeigbo which makes her fiction not just reading matter is her ability to knit life experiences into art. There is an effort to make the incidents as realistic as possible not just in context but in form and style. Prominent among her choice of techniques is foreshadowing and the use of the third person omniscient narrator.
A writer is a “righter” righting the societal “wrongs”. This is another way of saying that a writer is a watchdog to the society. He comments upon social happenings with the aim of improving them. This argument can be used to nullify the “art-for-art-sake” philosophy of literature. Art – for – art – sake perception opines that literature should be on its own aesthetics and not be mixed up with politics. In reality, literature cannot really be separated from human experience from the political, social, religious and cultural realm.
Literature is essentially a creative art. Hence, originality and creativity are the key words. Most of the ideas in 1 are either totally imagined (fiction) or partially imagined. Partial imagination is interplay of fact and art known as faction.
The generally accepted notion is that literature mirrors the society. But literature, as can be deduced from the present ideological trends does not stop at mirroring the society. It does more than mirror the society. It does not just give us the picture of our lives alone but goes further to suggest ways of improving ourselves. Literature is th private and public awareness given to both the individual and the society respectively through the exposure of the hidden or open truths that people seem to be ignorant of. Literature aims at affecting a change in the societal status quo.
Omotayo Oloruntoba -Oju (1999) cited in Ibrahim B.F. & Akande F.F, States that;
The term. literature may be used to refer to any material in written form or any other material whose features lend them to literary appreciation or appraisal… the term in a specialized sense refers to works of art in any of the established literary genres, prose, poetry and drama..
