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Periodical article | Leiden University catalogue | WorldCat |
Title: | Functionality in literature: art and propaganda |
Author: | Ezeigbo, Theodora A. |
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. |