Excremental Vision: A Comparative Study of Swift's A Tale of a Tub and Soyinka's the Interpreters
Date
2006
Authors
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Journal ISSN
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Publisher
Department of English
Abstract
To read Swift's A Tale of a Tub and Soyinka's The Interpreters is to decode the
meaning of excremental vision which Swift exploits by using excremental images to
satirize the malpractices and wrongheadedness of British colonizers in Ireland and
Soyinka to look at Nigerian government which is not different from white colonial
administration. Swift's frequent movement from tale through digression to further
digression and allusions refers to the lawlessness in the ruling of Britishers and its effect
on learning, religion, rationality, and philosophy. Soyinka with images of shit and faeces
hits at the cancerous effects of post-colonial hegemony in post-Independent Nigeria. His
characters like Sekoni and Sagoe are disillusioned because of their project killed by the
forces of corruption. His post-colonial project presents post-independent Nigeria of
1960s as same as white colonial administration since malfunctionings prevail as the
legacy of colonial administration.
Description
Keywords
Excremental Theory, Colonial administration