Journal of Critical Studies in Language and Literature

Orality, Indigenous Aesthetics, and the Poetics of Memory in Maria Ajima’s My Inene, My Grandma

2026-06-30T11:25:52+00:00

This study examines the deployment of orality and indigenous aesthetics in Maria Ajima’s My Inene, My Grandma, with a view to demonstrating how the poet reimages African oral traditions within contemporary written poetry. Drawing primarily on Oral Tradition Theory, with support from Postcolonial Theory, the study explores the ways repetition, chant structures, storytelling patterns, indigenous language, symbolism, and communal imagery function in the selected poems. Using qualitative textual analysis, the first five poems from the collection, including “My Inene, My Grandma”, “Arias for the Marias”, “My Three Little Chaps”, “This Native Love” and “The Trust of a Child” selected and purposely analysed. Findings of the study reveal that Ajima’s poetry is deeply-rooted in oral literary traditions, evident in its performative structures, praise forms, rhythmic patterning, and embedded folktale elements. The findings further reveal that indigenous linguistic expressions and culturally-grounded imagery serve as important aesthetic devices for preserving memory, articulating ancestry, and affirming cultural identity. The analysis also shows that the interaction of orality and indigenous aesthetics enables the poet to bridge the divide between oral tradition and written literary forms, thereby sustaining indigenous knowledge systems within contemporary poetic discourse. Through representations of grand-motherhood, kinship, communal values, and indigenous womanhood, the collection emerges as a poetic archive of cultural continuity. The study concludes that My Inene, My Grandma exemplifies how modern African poetry functions as a site where oral heritage is preserved, transformed, and aesthetically revitalised.

Psychological Trauma in Sam Shepard’s A Lie of The Mind

2026-07-06T11:46:52+00:00

This study aims to explore and understand the dire effects of psychological trauma on individuals and family relationships, as depicted in Sam Shepard's play, A Lie of the Mind. This study also aims to understand how psychological trauma caused by violence and abuse affects individuals, families, and their relationships. Furthermore, this study uses trauma theory as the main framework to explore the dire effects of trauma on individuals and family relationships. Psychological trauma focuses on how traumatic experience such as violence and abuse impact the mind, emotions, and behavior over time. The conclusion of this study shows that psychological trauma plays a dire role in the deterioration of family relationships, and how violence and abuse can create an ongoing cycle of suffering, which enables the transmission of trauma's effects from one person to another. Traumatic memory also has a huge effect on the way characters behave, making it hard for them to stay emotionally stable. The study also shows that trauma experienced during childhood years can have long-lasting effects on future behaviors.

Speaking and Silenced: Female Agency Juliet vs. Ophelia

2026-07-08T10:58:51+00:00

This essay aims to compare the female characters Juliet in Romeo and Juliet and Ophelia in Hamlet to discuss the concept of female agency in the works of William Shakespeare, particularly in relation to the characters’ use of speech or silence as tools of power. To achieve this, the essay demonstrates that while both female characters are embedded in a patriarchal society that limits their ability to make choices independently, the voice of Ophelia is under the control of people around her, especially her father, while Juliet’s voice is a way for her to gain some sort of independence as a character as she evolves in the play, shifting from obedient to somewhat an outspoken woman. On the other hand, Ophelia’s powerless condition in the kingdom of Elsinore forces her voice to be ignored; however, madness is the one way in which she can voice her thoughts, even though they do not make sense to anyone else. Another aspect that this essay touches on is how these two characters are remembered even in death. Juliet is remembered in the context of reconciliation, while Ophelia is remembered as others perceive her. The essay uncovers how Shakespeare views voice and silence in reference to gender through close reading and feminist theory.

African Urban Oral Poetry as an Interpreter of Contemporary Realities: The Perspective of Songs by Traders of Nkoulouloun Market in Douala-Cameroon

2026-07-20T11:21:58+00:00

This study investigates African urban oral poetry as a significant instrument in reflecting contemporary African realities and addressing global concerns in the modern context. Songs are a comfortable platform for discourse in unlimited and varied topics since they easily accommodate and sustain people’s collective experiences due to their dynamism and lyric character. The study of African urban oral poetry from the perspective of songs by traders in the Nkoulouloun market of Douala in Cameroon is anchored on the argument that, despite modern forms of communication, African urban orature is a relevant voice of the present. The paper maintains that the visible technological advancement has not replaced oral performance, which continues to survive in African traditional and urban spaces, preserving the historical realities and highlighting issues of both local and global concerns. Using the performance centered approach and ethnopoetics theory as tools for the analysis of the songs collected, the study employed the participant observation and interview methods of data collection and found out that orature is not ignorant of the changes that take place in its immediate socio-political, cultural and economic setting as well as the global stage due to its resilience and sensitive nature. The paper assumes that orature emanates from the collective experiences of its milieu and moment and harbours the mores, values and ethics of the people for whom it is created and performed. The conclusion in this paper is that Cameroon urban oral poetry carries the voices of the dispossessed and acts as an interpreter of contemporary realities and further reflects life in post-independence Cameroon in particular and Africa in general.

Emotional Propaganda and Linguistic Manipulation in Animal Farm: A Parody of the Russian Revolution

2026-07-22T11:51:03+00:00

This paper offers a rhetorical and historical analysis of George Orwell’s Animal Farm, examining how emotional propaganda and linguistic manipulation function as essential mechanisms of totalitarian control within the novel’s allegorical parody of the Russian Revolution. Through close readings and discourse-oriented analysis, the study investigates the pigs’ strategic use of fear appeal, rhetorical questions, linguistic simplification and complication, and the bandwagon effect to influence perception and suppress rebellion. These narrative strategies are implemented in Animal Farm in parallel with documented machinations during the Russian Revolution, including biased political slogans, visual media, and political discourse. The comparison reveals how Orwell mirrors historical techniques of persuasion to illustrate the erosion of memory, critical thinking abilities, and interpretive freedom under authoritarian rule. At the same time, the novel’s satirical and ironic form strengthens this warning by making political manipulation seem both absurd and dangerous. Attention is given to the cumulative power of repetition, emotional charge in media, and ritualized language in slogans, chants, and collective practices, demonstrating the construction and normalization of a distorted reality for the public. By analyzing these mechanisms both individually and in combination, this study argues that Animal Farm serves as a cautionary literary tale of societal vulnerability preceding communicative domination, exposing how sustained rhetorical manipulation across various forms can gradually replace truth with illusory reality.