THE WRITER AS THE CONSCIENCE OF HIS SOCIETY: A STUDY OF FESTUS IYAYI’S HEROES

Abstract

This article discusses the role of the creative writer as the conscience of his society using Festus Iyayi as an exam-ple. The study focuses on the themes and narrative technique of Iyayi's Heroes to present the author as a literary artist who exposes the corruption and other forms of social evil perpetrated against the common man and the soci-ety generally. Studies show that Iyayi’s Heroes is one of the literary works written on the Nigerian civil war fought between 1967 and 1970. Iyayi’s novel, however, is said to be different from other literary works on the war on account of its neutral perspective on the crisis. This is what informs the choice of the novel for this study. In the novel, Iyayi projects himself as the conscience of society highlighting the deceit, corruption, class-consciousness, insensitivity and avarice to which the common man and the society are subjected by the ruling class using the façade of fighting a civil war. The outcome of this study establishes Iyayi as a conscientious patriot who uses the genre of the novel to highlight the wrongs of Nigerian society with a prescription for social reform.