Context and Style in Adcbowales "Esu Challenges Olowo" and "Olowo Tackles Esu"

Abstract

The style of a text is not only marked by appropriateness of linguistic choices made alone, but also by being the most effective medium as the conveyor belt via which the envisaged understanding and response arc achieved. An autonomous or deeontextualised structure cannot be taken as a body of text. A language feature becomes a style when it is appropriated in the right context. By implication, the appropriateness and effectiveness of linguistic features that constitute style in a given text is dictated by the underlying social construct. Hence. this paper showcases how a good knowledge of the native context of Adebowale 's poems can trigger effective appreciation of the foregrounded and taken-for-granted details in his work which is presented in English as a 'foreign language. Overall. the analysis reveals the centrality of cultural context in digging out the facts behind meaning embellishments and presuppositions in the understanding of native poetry cast in foreign language.