APPRASING THE TRAJECTORIES OF RESISTANCE IN MUSA IDRIS OKPANACHI’S EATERS OF THE LIVING AND OLUSEGUN ADENIYI’S AGAINST THE RUN OF PLAY

Abstract

This exploration is undertaken within the context of the precarious political situation in Nigeria. It examines in concrete terms both Musa Idris Okpanachi’s and Olusegun Adeniyi’s attempts at apprehending the ferments of resistance and extent to which such concerns are circumscribed within the socio-political configuration of Nigeria. In this frame, the literary aesthetics of Okpanachi and the non-literary paradigm of Adeniyi have been appropriated within the purview of New Historicism to underscore and repudiate the plethora of issues bordering on political tyranny, corruption, mis-governance, ineptitude, social and economic decadence and other hot-button issues that are a common place in the country along with how such perturbations epitomize the contemporary Nigerian reality. By and large, these writers’ works engendered profound propositions that provide fresh insights into the dynamics of resistance and power and their overall implications for the Nigerian populace. In a nutshell, this paper explicates the trajectories of resistance within the social space of domination and how these considerations have directly impinged on Musa Idris Okpanachi’s The Eaters of the Living(2007) and Olusegun Adeniyi’s Against the Run of Play (2017).