Language Use in Alobwed’epie’s The Death Certificate: A Postmodernist Analysis

Abstract

This paper addresses language use in Alobwed’epie’s the Death Certificate from a postmodernist perspective. It seeks to show that the author of the selected novel, like many postcolonial African writers, attempts to assert his culture through some sort of indigenisation and intentional flouting of old canons of literature. Given that the present paper is anchored on postmodernism, the postmodernist theory the author’s is used to explain Alobwed’Epie’s perception of life and literature to assert his cultural identity through some sort of linguistic revolution. As a matter of fact, language is used in a very carefree and innovative way in order to escape the idealistic dictum of literary norms. Indigenisation is then regarded as a postmodernist technique, which aims at valorising the African identity and rejecting all the metanarratives of how a work of art should be produced. Obviously, in the present article postmodernism are both a theoretical framework and an object of study. The use of local languages and other languages like Pidgin in the novel under study has demonstrated that the then marginalised languages have moved from the margin towards the Centre and become established languages of African literature. The paper briefly discusses the emergence of postmodernism and shows how the traditional conventions have been deconstructed and substituted for new ideologies that have revolutionised the African literary landscape. It equally reviews selected previous works on language in African novels as well as on postmodernism that came up in the late 1950s as revolutionary responses to preceding movements. The paper ends with an account of the linguistic features of postmodernism used in the novel.