Isidore Nnadi

A Linguistic Stylistic Analysis of Chukwuemeka Ike's Novels: an Eclectic Approach Isidore Nnadi

The inroads which linguistics made into the field of style gave rise to linguistic stylistics, that is stylolinguistics. The "war of words" between literary stylisticians and linguistic stylisticians aside, this work is a symbiotic analysis involving the methods of operation in both fields. This eclectic approach is unique. We have selected Chukwuemeka Ike, a prolific African writer whose works have scarcely been given adequate attention by critics, and have subjected his fiction to linguistic and extra-linguistic frames to ensure in-depth analysis. We have explored the network of lexical selection, stylistically significant phrasal and clausal typology, sentence pattern, paragraph architecture and various linguo-literary schemes employed in the internal ordering of the message structure of the novels. The work has exposed the novelist's great aptitude for presenting the socio-cultural and political themes of the novels with amazing flexibility and linguistic dexterity. This book will be invaluable to professional writers, critics, lecturers and students of language and literature, and indeed anybody who has an eye for language aesthetics.