Prospects
ThehistoryoftheNigeriannoveloverthepastfiftyyearsdoesreflecta high level of awareness of events in the public sphere. Hence thebulk of scholarly work on this novel seems to take for granted that it isabout those events. There is, of course, a sense in which the history ofliterary scholarship gives warrant for linking literary activity to such'outside facts.' For instance, the Enlightenment, Tory pessimism, andVictorianismareperiod markersandmoodswhicharesometimesused as terms of classification in English literary studies. But these arepurelyexternalmarkers.Thespecificinterrelationshipsholdingbetween the literature and the period are often asserted and justifiedspeculatively. If there were necessity in these relationships, literary artwould be predictable. But the behaviour of literature throughout itshistory seems to follow no clear patterns of relationship to the 'outsidefacts'. The Enlightenment may serve for illustration. This was the ageofMoliereandRacine,bothoutstandingclassicists,whoseart,therefore, seemed to presuppose a highly cultured audience, hardly thesections of society mostin need ofenlightenment. It is quite as ifintheworkoftheseclassicistsliteraturehaditsbacktotheactualhistorical moment. Such is equally the case with Tory pessimism, as itkeptpacewithanAugustanpoetrythatsoughtancestryinandrecuperatedthe cadenceoftheliterature ofimperialRome.
Ifthe bulkofliterary scholarship inNigeriatakes forgrantedthat the novel showing awareness of the public event means that it isabout this event, the correlation is either a peculiarity of the Nigeriannovel, or it fails to capture the exact nature of the relationship inquestion. One of the consequences of correlating art in this way toexperienced reality is that art becomes a secondary and dependentprocess. It must then find a way to justify itself, and show why it maydemand serious attention. The question would be, what is art if it onlyrepeatswhatis,whetherasphotographicdocumentationorascaricature? In the historical community, a current of thought suggestsforanexplanationoftherashofdictatorshipsthroughoutAfricafrom
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thelate1960sto the1990sthathistoriographyhadacceptedoraltradition in the reconstruction of history during the colonial period andthat of the anti-colonial struggle. The result was that 'heroes' werecreated out of the leaders associated with the rise and fall of ancientAfrican kingdoms. Consequently, modern African leaders saw theirrolesintermsofthelegendaryheroesgivenrecognitionasthesavioursoftheircommunities.
ItisclaimedforAfricanhistoriography,therefore,thatitsforemostproductionwasthehero,aliterary/fictionalcategory.Subsequently,authoritarianregimesarosebyimitationofthelegendary heroes, followed by the literature that draws its raison d'êtrefrom experiences in the public sphere. If history is what produces theforms of experienced reality, and the experienced reality in turn givesrisetowhattakesplaceinliterature,historywouldbetheprimemover.Astoliterature—wemustextendPlato'smetaphoralittle—itisatathirdremovefromthe origin.
Often the ethical criticism of characters in the African novel hasbeen in terms of his success or failure to live up to the destiny of thelegendary hero as a redeemer or transformer of his society. However,thereisnothinginthehistoryofliteraturewhichdemandsthatfictional characters should be heroes in that sense or that literature andartshouldbeaderivedpractice.Forinstance,theriseofGreektragedy was at the time when Athens was the great imperial power inthe Eastern Mediterranean. Similarly, Victorian optimism correlates tothehumanisttheorythathumanbeingsareimprovable,andthatliterature is a powerful tool in achieving this. This optimism is notnecessarily reflected in the structure of the Victorian novel or in thediscursive patterns of the novels of the period. In our own context,what proves that the Nigerian novel does not necessarily correlate tothe real is precisely the demand which became vociferous at the closeof the 1970s that literature be socially engaged. If the literary artistsansweredthiscall,itwascertainlynotsustained.Thereappearstohave been a sharp and prolonged decline in the number of literarynovels published from about 1983 to the very close of the twentiethcentury.
Ourreflectionon theNigeriannovelin thisbookdoesnot make agreatdealoftheissueofpublicaffairs.Ratheritisguidedmainlyby
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the search for literary values, such as symbolic forms by virtue ofwhich the work gives rise to and feeds thought. Where public affairsare encountered, it is in terms of discursive formations. The prospectsof the novel over the next fifty years will probably be better served ifliterary scholarship resists the temptation to be prescriptive, beyonddemanding that what is written or published be art, that the work beabletosustaindiscussion.Minimally,thisentailsthatthenovelexceeds any set of statements claimed to be its meaning. It also entailsthat the interpretations can and ought to change over time. In line withthis rule, our interpretations of the works of the tradition over the pastfiftyyearshavecertainlynotsoughttorestatetheestablishedpositions. We have sought to reopen these works to new efforts ofreading,interpretation, discussion, andevendiscovery.
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