The language of humour in Chinua Achebe’s arrow of God: A stylistic study

Abstract

There is extensive use of humour in Chinua Achebe‟s Arrow of God. In the heart of very engaging plots and sub-plots bordering on the colonial tremor in  Africa, Achebe still finds time and space to infuse humour into his narrative of culture contact and conflict. This paper analyzes the stylistic use of humour  in realizing Achebe‟s overall artistic vision in Arrow of God. As it is, humorous usages dot discourses in the narrative, even in the midst of very  severe or intense circumstances. The paper examines the role of humour and the language in which humour is couched to enrich the narrative of culture  contact and conflict in an African society. The language of humour in the text under study is found to be sometimes metaphoric, sarcastic, ironic, satiric,  hyperbolic and euphemistic. It is therefore concluded that Achebe‟s deployment of linguistic resources to create humour with which serious communal concerns are attended to is a significant contribution to the development of African storytelling technique, elevating humour as an integral part of the  tools of an African oral artist-cum-novelist.