LANGUAGE IN INDIA

Strength for Today and Bright Hope for Tomorrow

Volume 14:5 May 2014
ISSN 1930-2940

Managing Editor: M. S. Thirumalai, Ph.D.
Editors: B. Mallikarjun, Ph.D.
         Sam Mohanlal, Ph.D.
         B. A. Sharada, Ph.D.
         A. R. Fatihi, Ph.D.
         Lakhan Gusain, Ph.D.
         Jennifer Marie Bayer, Ph.D.
         S. M. Ravichandran, Ph.D.
         G. Baskaran, Ph.D.
         L. Ramamoorthy, Ph.D.
         C. Subburaman, Ph.D. (Economics)
Assistant Managing Editor: Swarna Thirumalai, M.A.

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Existence as Paranoia in Esiaba Irobi’s Hangmen Also Die and Nwokedi

Chukwumah, Ignatius, Ph.D.
Ihentuge Chisimdi Udoka

Abstract

This article examines the phenomenon of existence as paranoia and the many shades of intrigues, primitive as they are intricate, they attract and dispel in Esiaba Irobi’s Hangmen Also Die and Nwokedi. Amongst these are death and paranoia. While focusing on the phenomenon of existence, besides the lives and activities of all the major characters in the two texts which culminating in the question of how death and its haunting echoes affect them, this work studies those characters who miss the web of death only to be caught in the net of paranoia. Paranoia here is interpreted as madness. Paranoia alone, with death, or mostly with, but not limited to the burden of history, memory, and culture, serves as the remote and immediate reason for the activities of the characters, which take place within the super-structural and figural image of “time” in the form of the (old) year and the approaching new year. The explorations of these are further entrenched in the mainstream of literature comparatively, using the hermeneutical critical method which presupposes that the meaning derivable from any literary text must be propped by a majority of textual existents contained therein and supported by the entire body of the discourse of tradition. This article concludes that Esiaba Irobi’s Hangmen Also Die and Nwokedi are works of existential significance, where existence as paranoia plays out.

Keywords: Esiaba Irobi; existence as paranoia; Hangmen Also Die; Nwokedi; Nigerian drama

Introduction

Human life has to be directed toward some end. The end is invariably multi-dimensional in scope, depth and meaning. All these, as well as the inexplicable, engage in a skein of relationships called existence, an endemic problem and a major preoccupation for some philosophers. The existential or what it takes to exist could be very a very complex phenomenon. But as it pertains to Hangmen Also Die and Nwokedi, existence through paranoia stretches its signification beyond the conventional to include madness. A renowned authority on Esiaba Irobi studies and criticism, declares that Irobi’s “deep anchorage in the oral tradition of his Igbo ethnic group, legends of enigmatic and daring deity-heroes, its love of the mysteries of life and transcendence of the human spirit, its rousing chants, masquerades, and dramaturgy remained the indispensible source of creative and critical thinking” (Diala 20). This is true, but also true is the fact that existence, of the intricate sort, also plays an important role in enunciating meaning in his works.

This is only the beginning part of the article. PLEASE CLICK HERE TO READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE IN PRINTER-FRIENDLY VERSION.

Chukwumah, Ignatius, Ph.D.
Department of English and Literary Studies
Federal University
Wukari
Taraba State
Nigeria
ignachuks@gmail.com

Ihentuge Chisimdi Udoka
Department of Theatre Arts
University of Port Harcourt
Port Harcourt
East/West Road PMB 5323 Choba, Rivers State, Nigeria
apparthy22ud@yahoo.com
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