1.1 Introduction
The literature of Ola Rotimi's “Our Husband Has Gone Mad Again” (Rotimi, 1977), as a general formulation, the ontological relatedness of drama and society has provided the anchor for various sociological perspectives on the development and growth of drama. Ola Rotimi are playwrights of longevity and extensive productive life. Their plays in terms of ideological frames and mechanics of composition seem to transcend the limit of the boundary set by any identified generation of Nigerian dramaturgy, and therefore cannot be pushed into any single periodic category with absolute fidelity. An aspect of this study will explore how these playwrights handle trans-generational issues with respect to their points of convergence and divergence.
Critical Discourse Analysis aims to make its users aware of and able to describe and deconstruct vectors and effects in texts and semiotic materials generally which might otherwise remain to wield power uncritiqued. In their respects, Critical Discourse Analysis may be a kind of wake up cal, or consciousness, rising about the coercive or anti-demo criticizing effects of the discourses we live by. This project focuses on an attempt to carry out Critical Discourse Analysis of Ola Rotimi’s Our Husband has Gone Mad Again. This chapter therefore focuses on the purpose of study, scope of the study, justification, methodology, data description and author’s background.
1.2 Background of Study
Language is an avenue through which cultures can be understood. Language and social reality are strictly tied together, hence language is said to be culturally transmitted (Heath, 2003). This implies that changes in produce change in language because peoples‟ cultural orientation, attitude, belief, disposition, worldview and social value among others are reflected in their language (including proverbs). Proverbs are products of human experiences and mostly culture specific. They (proverbs) are concise in structure, often known by heart, loaded with philosophical meaning and passed from one generation to another.
The role of proverbs in societies where discourse is laced with assorted forms of proverbs for different communicative functions cannot be over emphasized. Proverb is one of the means through which the cultural background of a group of people could be known. It reveals a people’s historical development, worldview and attitude. Proverb is a special way by which social behaviour is controlled in order to ensure mutual intelligibility among the interlocutors. Proverbs provide hard hitting messages in a profound way rather than in a nasty or demoralizing manner. They pass very weighty messages in a mild or gentle way. The persuasive and highly philosophical nature of proverbs makes them a special means of communication in any discourse. Proverbs softly appeal to the subconscious level of human reasoning because they symbolize the accepted code of behaviour in a society, by praising social virtues and condemning vices. They are the standard bearers and epitomes of what is right and wrong. Proverbs transcend the boundary of religion as even the people who have no attachment to any faith use proverbs from time to time.
It is interesting to note that proverbs have been fairly comprehensively studied from both language (linguistics) and literature perspectives, although, the concern of this study is on linguistics oriented studies. While Adedimeji (2003) is concerned with meaning explication in Chinua Achebe and Ola Rotimi‟s works (through semantic and pragmatic theories), Akinwumi (2006) from a literary point of view, focuses on the use of proverbs as a tool for the restoration of social order. In other recent efforts, Sanusi and Omoloso (2008) examine the use of proverbs in preserving archaic lexical items and expressions.
The preoccupation of Adeleke (2009) is the aspect of Yoruba history in proverbs, while Adejumo (2009) examines power perspectives in Yoruba fauna proverbs. The above studies are indication that some previous works have considered the didactic nature of proverbs. However, there is either no linguistic theory or principle, or where there is, a faulty method is adopted as a basis of revealing the moral significance of proverbs is revealed. From the foregoing, it is evident that proverbs occupy a vintage position in both language and literary studies, and this stimulates researches in both fields. There is also a growing interest in proverbs because of the multidisciplinary nature of Linguistics, Sociology, Psychology and Anthropology.
The concept of a global village is borne out of the fact that technology and new converging forms of economy, language and political state have resulted into shrinking and diminishing the importance of peoples‟ differences. It also means that local differences become subservient to global decisions and global powers (Jenks, 1998:63).In response to this need, a contextual (pragmatics) study of the selected proverbs is considered necessary. The study bears in mind that complex in literary texts is difficult to determine. Hence, the working definition of context in this study refers to the adaptive context as used by Ola Rotimi for the appropriation of thematic preoccupation of the selected texts.
1.3 Purpose of Study
The purpose of this project is to critically analyze the Proverbs titled Our Husband has Gone Mad Again by Ola Rotimi using Critical Discourse Analysis. Being that the analysis of a play is rarely done, the researcher is not aware of any previous attempt to do Critical Discourse Analysis of the text Our Husband has Gone Mad Again.
1.4 Significance/Justification of Study
In the best knowledge of the researcher as a theoretical construct has not been used in analyzing Our Husband has Gone Mad Again by Ola Rotimi. Thus, the study is justifiable as it seeks to investigate the sociopolitical and cultural issues that are inherent in the text. It is also believed that this study will be an additional work in the scholarship of the study of Critical Discourse Analysis, especially at the undergraduate level.
This study will be of immense benefit to other researchers who intend to know more on this study and can also be used by non-researchers to build more on their research work. This study contributes to knowledge and could serve as a guide for other study.
1.5 Scope of the Study
The study focuses on the Critical Discourse Analysis of Proverbs in Selected Works of Ola Rotimi. This project will analyze Ola Rotimi’s Our Husband Has Gone Mad Again using Critical Discourse Analysis. It will analyze selected conversations and utterances in the text. There are a lot of Critical Discourse Analysis elements but only some of them will be selected for the analysis of the text. The analysis will entail how power relations are decoded from the text that links to the society. Findings and conclusions will bring a temporary end to this research work.
1.6 Limitations of the Study
During the course of this study, many things militated against its completion, some of which are:
- Time Constraint: The time frame given to accomplish this project was very short due to school academic calendar and it was carried out under pressure which made the researcher not to implement some necessary features.
- Research material: availability of research material is a major setback to the scope of the study.
- Frequent power failure: This made the researcher append more money on fuel to ensure sustainable power.
- Financial Constraint: Insufficient fund tends to impede the efficiency of the researcher in sourcing for the relevant materials, literature or information and in the process of data collection (internet).
1.7 Methodology
This project is basically Critical Discourse Analysis or Ola Rotimi’s Our Husband Has Gone Mad Again. Some selected conversations and utterances will be selected from the text for analysis.
Norman Fairclough’s theory of Critical Discourse Analysis has been chosen for the analysis of this research work, some elements have been selected from theory including the political and sociocultural issues which occur in the text and leads to the society. The textual analysis sociocultural analysis and the political issues of this text will be analyzed.
