ECOCRITICAL ANALYSIS OF TANURE OJAIDE’S THE ACTIVIST AND KAINE AGARY’S YELLOW-YELLOW

ECOCRITICAL ANALYSIS OF TANURE OJAIDE’S THE ACTIVIST AND KAINE AGARY’S YELLOW-YELLOW

ABSTRACT

Ecocoritical studies intensely show the relationship between man’s environment and literature. In this way, ecocriticism becomes a standpoint that brings environmental discourse to the fore within a literary context; a context that shows the exploitation and decay in man’s environment. Following this assertion, the themes that border on environmental degradation are routed in migration, pipeline vandalism, blowouts owing to gas flares and pollution. Most of the analyses on the concept of ecocriticism take the direction of the greenish nature of the environment and the extent of the marginalisation of a people. This research views ecocritism from a different perspective. It depicts ecocritism as a theory that deploys the tools of ecoactivism and resistance in the reading and analyses of Tanure Ojiade’s The Activist and Kaine Agary’s Yellow-Yellow. It also shows the manner in which humans strive to unchain themselves from the manacles that hold them bondage by resisting the discourse of ecotrauma. This study also delves into the negative impacts of oil activities in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria by connecting the ecocritical patterns of ecoactivism and resistance to the utterances and actions of the characters in the texts.