Defining the Idiot for Africa’s Political Advancement: A Literary Analysis of the Title of Asare’s Ananse in the Land of Idiots
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.36312/jolls.v4i2.1777Keywords:
Titology; Paratext; Idiot; Characterisation; MeaningAbstract
The study of literary titles in literature is not new but has become prominent in modern space of literary analysis. People no longer see literary titles as mere appendages with which they identify a literary work, but rather, they look at it as a roadmap to the consumption of the text. A. careful analysis of a literary title as a paratext, provides a clear picture of the narrative and highlights expectations for reading such a text. This is what has made the study of titology relevant in literary studies and literary stylistics. The objective of this paper is to examine how Asare uses the title: Ananse in the Land of Idiots to portray the characters and their actions in the play; to establish a relationship between the title of the play and its meaning; and to add style with meaning to the overall understanding of the play. The research involved here is qualitative in nature and a close reading method of the primary source and ideas from Genette and other leading critics on the theory of titology are used to study how the title reflects the actions of the characters throughout the play. After a careful analysis of the play in relation to its title, it is revealed that the title does not just identify the drama work. Rather, the title is reflected throughout the plot of the play and adds a metaphorical meaning as well as style to the drama piece. It is concluded established that Asare coins this title stylistically to prompt African leaders and their citizenry about their actions and inactions that facilitate the manipulation of Africa by the West. This implies that a titological approach to literary titles holds the potential of revealing hidden meanings in literary works which are often overlooked.
Downloads
References
Aspers, P. &Corte, U. (2019). What is qualitative in qualitative research? Qualitative
Sociology, 42, 139-160. doi.org/10.1007/s11133-019-9413-7
Agius, J. A. (2013). Qualitative research: Its value and applicability. The Psychiatrist, 37
(6), 204-206. doi:10.1192/pb.bp.113.042770
Adams, H. (1987). Titles, titling, and entitlement to. The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, 46(1), 5-15.
Affiah, U. (2012). From orality to print: An oraliterary examination of Efua T. Sutherland’s The Marriage of Anansewa and Femi Osofisan’s Morountodun. Journal of Humanities and Social Science, 5(2):13-25.
Amissah-Arthur, J. B. (2019). Theorising pornogrammar in the African folktale tradition: The trickster rhetorical indirection and sexual indiscretion. Legon Journal of Humanities, 30(1), 54-81. https://dx.doi.org/10.4314/ljh.v30i1.3
Appiah-Adjei, D. (2010). The mystery of honey and mouth and the mouth is sealed: Acritical appraisal of Yaw Asare’s Ananse in the Land of Idiots as a metaphor in the African society. Journal of Performance Art, 4(2), 8-14.
Arthur, P. (2020). Philosophy and heroism: The literary perspective of Yaw Asare’s Ananse in the Land of the Idiots. E-Journal of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences, 1(5), 152–164. https://doi.org/10.38159/ehass.2020094
Asante, E. & Mpotsiah, M. (2021). The portrayal of Ananse as a deceptive character in “anansesem”: Evidence from Yaw Asare’s Ananse in the Land of Idiots. International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science (IJRISS), 5(12), 607-616.
Asante, E. & Oppong, S. Y. (2021). Postcolonial theory and African drama: A critical perspective on Ananse in the Land of Idiots. International Journal on Studies in English Language and Literature, 9(1), 1–8. https://doi.org/10.20431/2347-3134.0901001
Asare, Y. (2006). Ananse in the land of idiots. Accra: Study Ghana Foundation.
Brew, F. (2018). The ‘linking character’: A valuable tool for African playwrights. Journal of African Arts, 2(2), 1-22.
Birkholz, J. M. &Budke, L. (2021). Distant and close reading in literature: A case of networks in periodical studies. Interférences littéraires/Literaire interferenties, 25, 204-217.
Carter, J., Clarke, M. T., Halpern, F., Mason, D., Nicole, J. &Vanek, M. (2022). Too close for context: Where students get stuck when close reading. Pedagogy, 22(3), 349-371.
Close reading (2024). Basmo: A Smart Way to Read. Retrieved 11 April, 2024, from https://basmo.app/what-is-close-reading
D’Israeli, I. (1881) Titles of books in curiosities of literature. ed. Benjamin DTsraeli, London: Wame
Eco, U. (1984). The title and the meaning, in Reflections on ‘The Name of the Rose’, trans. William Weaver, London: Seeker and Warburg, pp. 1-8.
Eppley, K. (2019). Close reading: What is reading for? Curriculum Inquiry, 49(3), 338-355. doi.org/10.1080/03626784.2019.1631701
Genette, G. (1988). The structure and functions of literary titles. trans. Bernard Crampe, in Critical Inquiry, 14(4), 692-720.
Genette, G. (1997). Paratexts: Thresholds of interpretation. trans. Jane E. Lewin Cambridge: Cambridge University Press
Greenham, D. (2019). Close Reading: The Basics. New York: Routledge.
idiot. Oxford Reference. Retrieved 9 Jan. 2024, from https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/oi/authority.20110803095956798.
Kellman, S. G. (1975). Dropping names: The poetics of titles. Criticism, 17, 152-67.
Levin, H. (1977). The title as a literary genre. The Modern Language Review, 72(4), xxiii–xxxvi. https://doi.org/10.2307/3724776
Khisa, M. (2022). Rethinking the Pan-African agenda: Africa, the African Diaspora and the agenda for liberation. Africa Development, XLVII (4), 1-23. doi.org/10.57054/ad.v47i4.2975
Maiorino, G. (2008). First pages: A poetics of titles. University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press.
Mlambo, V.H., Masuku, M.M. &Mthambu, Z. (2024). The new scramble Africa in a post-colonial era and the challenges of inclusive development: A semi-systematic literature review. Development Studies Research, 11 (1), 1-12. doi.org/10.1080/21665095.2024.2306387.
Mwita, K. M. (2022). Strengths and weaknesses of qualitative research in social sciences studies. Research in Business and Social Science, 11(6), 618-625.
Nsiah, J. & Marfo, C. (2011). What’s in a title? A reading of Amma Darko’s The Housemaid. Spheres Public and Private: Western Genres in African Literature, ed. Gordon Collier, Matatu 39; Amsterdam & New York: Editions Rodopi.
Osuigwe, C.E. (2023). Post-independence Politics in Africa. In: Leadership and Economic Development Challenges in Post-Colonial Africa. Sustainable Development Goals Series. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-45663-3_3
Pandharipande, R. (1987). On nativization of English. World Englishes 6(2), 149–158.
Ryder, H. & Fu, Y. (2021). Africa’s “too little debt” crisis: Why finance from China to African countries is more critical than ever in the wake of COVID-19. China International Strategy Review, 3, 325-341. https://doi.org/10.1007/s425333-02-0083-x
Sankoff, D., & Laberge, W. (1974). Language in society. London: Cambridge University Press.
Sidi Chabi, M. & Chabi, O. R. (2022). Carelessnees and its drawbacks as seen through Yaw ASare’s Ananse in the Land of Idiots. International Journal on Studies in English Language and Literature (IJSELL), 10(4), 34-47. https://doi.org/10.20431/2347-3134.1004005
Smith, B. H. (2015). What was “Close Reading”? : A century of method in literary studies. The Minnesota Review, 87, 57-75. doi.org/10.1215/00265667-3630844
Sutherland, Efua. (1975). The Marriage of Anansewa. Accra: Sedco Publishing Ltd.
Ugwu, C. & Eze Val, H. U. (2023). Qualitative research. IDOSR Journal of Computer and Applied Sciences. 8(1), 20-35.
Welsch, J. G., Powell, J. J. & Robnolt, V. (2019). Getting to the core of close reading: What do we really know and what remains to be seen? Reading Psychology, 40, 95-116, doi: 10.1080/02702711.2019.1571544
Tenny, S., Brannan, J. M. & Brannan, G. D. (2022). Qualitative research. Last updated on September 18. Retrieved from (www.ncb.nim.nih.gov/books/NBK470395/), on 26/04/2024.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2024 Confidence Gbolo Sanka, Ofori Amanfo Boateng , Alhassan Yakubu, Portia Oppong Siaw
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Authors who publish with JOLLS agree to the following terms:
- For all articles published in JOLLS, copyright is retained by the authors. Authors permit the publisher to announce the work with conditions. When the manuscript is accepted for publication, the authors agree to implement a non-exclusive transfer of publishing rights to the journals.
- Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgment of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgment of its initial publication in this journal.
- Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work (See The Effect of Open Access).
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
