Lexical Structure as a Marker of Ideology in Ayi Kwei Armah’s Fragments and Two Thousand Seasons

Abstract

Recent work in the field of Critical Discourse theory, such as that by Norman Fairclough and Teun van Dijk, suggests that it is possible to uncover ideologies inscribed in a text by focusing on elements of discourse. Drawing on the Bakhtinian theory that considers language as a field of ideological confrontation and insights from Critical Discourse Analysis, this article examines how vocabulary mediates ideologies in two novels by Ghanaian author Ayi Kwei Armah, namely Fragments and Two Thousand Seasons. Although critical linguistics has been concerned to widen the scope of stylistics, not just by including as its object of study a wide range of text types, literary and non-literary, but also by allowing insights from other disciplines of the social sciences to be used for a better understanding of the text to be analysed, this article limits its discussion to literary analysis underpinned by socio-cultural knowledge.

Key words:

• Ayi Kwei Armah
• Critical Discourse Analysis
• ideological constructedness
• lexical choices
• Fragments and Two Thousand Seasons

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Marcel Khombe Mangwanda

PROF. MARCEL Khombe Mangwanda worked in the Department of English at UNISA before taking early retirement in 2012. His research interests include African literature, postcolonial literature and Critical discourse analysis.