Owoeye Durojaiye Kehinde

Rhetorical Criticism of Ben Okri's Astonishing the Gods: the Fine Line Between Rhetoric and Literature Owoeye Durojaiye Kehinde

This book was an attempt at making manifest the rhetorical options explored by Ben Okri in his work, Astonishing the Gods. In pursuance of this aim, an exegesis of Astonishing the Gods and some other novels that shared stylistic traits with it was done. Classical and modern views on rhetoric were also reviewed. Furthermore, besides the manifest rhetorical strategies that were employed by the author, literary matters with rhetorical focus were also highlighted. During this analysis, it came to light that Ben Okri availed himself of the holism that was in-dwelling in the new rhetoric revisionist sensibilities. However, the fact that new rhetoric was built on Aristotelian precedents was also revealed. This research concluded that although literature and rhetoric may not be the same, a very nebulous line, to a discerning critic, separated the two.