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Periodical article Periodical article Leiden University catalogue Leiden University catalogue WorldCat catalogue WorldCat
Title:Functionality in literature: art and propaganda
Author:Ezeigbo, Theodora A.ISNI
Year:1989
Periodical:Savanna: A Journal of the Environmental and Social Sciences
Volume:10
Issue:1
Pages:78-83
Language:English
Geographic term:Nigeria
Subjects:propaganda
novels
Abstract:The present theoretical exploration of the relationship between art and propaganda is illustrated and concretized through examples drawn from the works of well-known writers in the Western and African traditions. The author notes that it is important that the artist's propaganda intent in the work of art does not impede aesthetic considerations. Depending on his technique and intention, a writer can be either a 'responsible' or an 'irresponsible' propagandist. An artist whose propaganda is morally justifiable and who is aesthetically conscious in his treatment of his subject is a responsible (critical) propagandist. But a writer whose defence of a cause is morally unjustifiable even though his work is aesthetically satisfying is an irresponsible (uncritical) propagandist. In these terms, the propaganda of the English writers T.S. Eliot and J. Cary is uncritical and irresponsible, while that of the Nigerian writers Wole Soyinka and Chinua Achebe is critical and responsible. Ref.
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