An Overview of Modern Nigerian Literatures and Provisional Notes on “Post-Dictatorship” Cultural Expression

Abstract

This article provides a fairly detailed overview of the trajectory of modern Nigerian literatures from their roots in the precolonial oral forms of cultural expression to what has been problematically described as “third-generation” Nigerian writing. It also traces the critical tradition of categorising modern Nigerian writing into three “generations.” I propose that current Nigerian writing as well as a cross-generational array of texts may be more productively described as post-military dictatorship (or simply “post-dictatorship”) cultural expression in view of the enduring influence of prolonged periods of military interventions on textual production in Nigeria well beyond the return to civilian rule in 1999. I demonstrate the workability of this term through concise references to selected works from two representative post-dictatorship writers.