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Symbols Of Decadence In Ayi Kwei Armah’s The Beautyful Ones Are Not Yet Born
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1.1 theoretical frame work and methodology
The Marxist theory
will be adopted for the critical analysis of the text, out of all the
theory, Marxism is a modern theory where dialectic materialism is
emphasized. When literature began to be recognized as a weapon for
social change, as a struggle of the individual for economic and
political power.
Marxists tell us about past and present social
relations and implications of an author’s work; what they should have
been or ought to be.
The ideological aspects are of interest to
Marxists who operate on the theory of political economy. Attention is
paid in the main to the struggle of opposites (dialectics) and to the
examination of social contradictions in the society. These is an
emphasis on class propaganda and revolutionary didacticism as well as
the ideological specification of the total state. There is also emphasis
on the deterministic origin of art, the economic and social status
(proletarian, pseudo-bourgeois or aristocratic) of artists and artisans
in various past eras.
Marxism was originated by Karl Marx in 19th
century, a political thinker. Hence this text aims at an analytical
application of the traditional mode to indicate the ideological exegesis
of the various schools indicated, (Ibrahim & Akande, 2000,21).
Marxist approach aims at an analytical application of the traditional
mode to indicate the ideological exegesis of the various schools
indicated for Karl Marx himself “Combines traditional materialism with
the critical analysis of development bringing out the conflict between
the original direction, its direct opposite and their unificationâ€. The
African write pre-occupation is to negate the happening in the growing
urban cities include Festus Iyayi, Zaynab Alkali, Olu Obafemi, Niyi
Osundare, Odia Ofeimum, Tanuri Ojoide etc.
Symbol and decadence are
related because decadence in the society is a symbol, a machinery of
oppression in the human society. These symbols of decadence therefore
constitute a problem that the Marxist writers seek to address in the
Marxist theory.
The research findings here revealed that there is
decadence, oppression and corruption in the society, but the problem of
this research is now encountering is the issue of how these vices of the
society which can be termed as basically ‘Symbols of decadence’ affect
the larger human society that make up the proletariat. The psychological
and emotional trauma of Sigmund Freud (1967) of the effect of these
channels of depriving the society their rights is a major issue that
this research addresses.
The methodology of this work focuses on the
theory of Marxism theory. The theory will then focus on the thematic
concern of symbols and decadence of the text selected for the study. The
thematic concern incorporates sub-themes in the story that will revolve
around this major theme to develop the elements in the theory for the
analysis.
The population for the study is textual population under
study are not real human being, but characters that are rigid in a story
are accessible. The text used which represent the struggle of
individual in The Beautyful Ones Are Not Yet Born. We have some
characters that share different perspective on the view of symbol and
decadence. The author pick-out some character to represent the corrupt
society, Armah create a gap between the haves and have not.
Joseph Koomson also known as Joe Koomson represents the rich and ‘The Man’ represent the poor in the society.
We
can then imply that the author have stratified the population the text,
thus the stratified sampling will be adopted for study. The discourse
of the major character will be used to focus on the major theme of the
text alongside the elements identifiable in the Marxism theory.
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