Studies in Literature and Language
Impoliteness and Negotiation of Meaning in Ola Rotimi’s Our Husband Has Gone Mad Again
Abstract
This paper analyses impolite expressions in Ola Rotimi’s Our Husband Has Gone Mad Again. The study applies a combined framework of Culpeper’s impoliteness strategies (1996, 2005 and 2011) and Spencer-Oatey’s Rapport Management Strategies (2008). The study reveals that the prominent patterns of impolite (abusive) expressions deployed in Ola Rotimi’s drama text involve interlocutors’ utterances capable of demeaning the self-esteem of others in the society of the text. Positive impoliteness strategy (using derogatory nominations) prevails followed by Negative impoliteness strategy. The impolite exchanges define the personality of the characters, lead to loss of political ticket that should have guaranteed electoral victory, and devalue relationships. When extremely applied, these strategies drive home, intensify and inform the absurdities in the life style of the retired soldier in the literary text. These birth inequality, polygamy, betrayal/deceit as inherent themes in the text and in a way, dismantle the retired soldier’s family and political base.
As a symbolic representation of the many alliances some African countries enter into, using impoliteness drives home and intensifies the absurdities of the various relationships and their destructive effects overriding the positive ones they were supposed to serve. The paper concludes that impoliteness is strategic-pragmatic device that informs the motif of the drama text.
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DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3968/13823
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