AN ANALYSIS OF FICTION LITERATURE FOR PRE- ADOLESCENTS PUBLISHED IN SOUTH EAST NIGERIA

ABSTRACT

This research analysed fiction  literature for pre-adolescents published in  South

East Nigeria by Nigerian authors. Thirty fiction books from thirteen registered publishing companies were critically examined. These novels were the only ones published with the ten years interval from 1999 to 2009. The examination of the books was based on a document examination guide designed by the researcher. The  work  was  analysed  under  five  research  questions,  concerning;  the  major themes of the fiction books in relation to pre-adolescent’s need, the demographic characteristics of the  main  characters, relationships featured  in  the novels, the moral values illustrated in the fiction books for Nigeria pre-adolescences and the elements of culture featured in the fiction for pre-descendents. It was found that only a few books have pre-adolescent characters. Most of the examined books did not provide opportunities for reader’s identification with varied role models, pre- adolescent  problems   were  not  exposed  and   little   was  left  to   the  readers imagination. The books tended to de- emphasis pre-adolescent’s life experiences that  are  of  immediate  relevance  to  a  child  8-13  years  of  age  but  gave  more coverage to adolescent and adult lives. To curb the aforementioned problems it was recommended that writers and publishers endeavour to have age specifications in every  book  they  publish;  publishers  of  books  for  pre-adolescent’s  should  be familiar with developmental characteristics of this age group to help them know which  book  is  suitable  for  this  age  group;  government  should  scrutinized publishing firms to be able to make a demarcation between unprofessional and professional publishers; and finally, seminars or workshops should be organized occasionally for writers and publishers of children’s literature.

CHAPTER ONE INTRODUCTION

Literature is one of the great creative and universal means of communicating human feelings and happenings. Elaturoti (1985) opined that “literature has conquered time and space by bring past  and  present events  as  well  as  far  and  near places  together”.  Watson  (1978)  described literature as “writings that are valued because of their power or their beauty, it records how men feel and  think, and helps  them to understand  the world in which they live”. Okafor (1989) defined young adult literature as “ a body of creative works which are educative and provide source of enjoyment and entertainment as well as enrichment to young people as their primary intended audience. It serves instructional, psychological as well as recreational goals”. Actually literature can be said to be expression of human thoughts and experiences which aims at helping children understand themselves better. It is a powerful medium for making a child, especially a pre- adolescent, aware of the realities of life within and around him.

According to Grolier (1989), literature is divided into two broad classes: fiction and no- fiction. Fiction is a story created from an author’s imagination. It may be written in prose or verse. Novels and short stories are the most popular forms of fiction. Other forms of fiction includes dramas and narrative poems. Non – fiction is the kind of writing we turn to when we want to learn the facts of science and history. It gets into the realm of literature when the ideas are beautifully expressed in language that gives added pleasure. The two kinds of literature are not entirely separate, for non – fiction may move us strongly by its well- presented argument; and fiction may reveal in the course of a story new facts and ideas. Nevertheless, fiction is most often what we study as literature and it is the main concern of this study.

Fiction  is something invented by the imagination or feigned, specifically an invested story.  Vidal (1954) quoted  by Norton  (1986) opined  that “fiction  is from  the Latin  word ‘ fingere’ – to form or create; it is the genre of imaginative prose literature including novels and short stories. Wolf (1974) wrote that fiction is “like a spider’s web attached ever so lightly all four corners, often the attachment is scarcely perceptible”. It is a fabrication which resembles a reality. It aims at stirring our feeling and imagination. It captivates or arrests the attention of the readers  that  they are  constrained  to  stay on. It  does  this by telling exciting  stories  and by introducing us to characters whose emotion we can understand and share. Traditionally, fiction includes novels, short stories, biographies, fables, fairy tales, plays and poems but it now also encompasses films, comic books and video games (en. Wkpedia org/wikifiction). Fiction can help pre-adolescents manage and cope with the trauma they encounter at this stage of life.

Pre-adolescence according to Berks (1998), is “the period of childhood just before the on- set of puberty, often designated as between the ages of 10 and 12 in girls and 11 and 13 in boys”. Pre-adolescence  is  defined  as  a  period  between  the  ages  of  8  and  13  years  in  a  child’s development (Streets, 1984). According to McNassor (1975), “It is a time of life in which young people enter a night world: They feel most alone and live on the border of reality and unreality when the shackles of imagination are loosened and when terror mounts”. Campton (1982) said it is “a period during which the youngster moves from childhood toward maturity with problems and concerns brought about by physical, intellectual and socio- emotional changes. Iwuh (2005) opined that “it is a transitional period when most children tend to change from being family oriented in activities and  control to being members of their own age groups” Operationally pre- adolescence   covers children within the upper primary and junior secondary school.

Red1 (1966), saw pre-adolescent stage as;  The most baffling phase of all, a period when the child is generally said to be difficult. It is no less difficult for the child who it seems overnight has leaped from the more stable psychological and physiological world of childhood into

the realm of uncontrolled psychic energy, impulse flooding,

powerful new cognitive capacity and a stubborn sense of self determination that often dismays parent and teacher. (P 38).

Erikson (1960) believed that the combination of adult expectations and children’s drive towards mastery sets the stage  for psychological  conflict  of middle  childhood. At this stage  several transformations in self understanding take place. Children at this age level can logically deal with abstractions, consider alternate ways of viewing a situation and tolerate ambiguity. Their peer group plays an increasingly important role in their life, developing moral and social values and as well achieving personal independence. This new way of thinking about themselves has a major impact on their developing self esteem. A number of developmental tasks are associated with pre-adolescences, and according to Dike (1985), “if books are to have any meaning, they must be related to the young person’s personal and social need”. Among the basic developmental needs are learning new relationships with peers, achieving independence from parents, acquiring self confidence and system of values of one’s own (Onuoha, 1987).

Engel (1976), emphasizes  the value of literature  in helping children  understand their feelings, identify with characters who experience similar problems and gain new insights into how others  have  coped  with  those  problems.  A book  portraying  another  child  in  a similar situation can dispel some of the strangeness of the approaching event by giving the child a realistic expectation of what will happen. Many of the child’s fears may be allayed. Armed with

same knowledge the child can face the situation with a measure of confidence. Glazer (1981) identifies four ways in which literature contributes to children’s emotional growth. First, it shows children that many of their feelings are both normal and natural. Second, it explores a feeling from  several view- points, giving a fuller picture  and providing  the basis  for naming  those emotions. Third, actions of various characters show options for ways to deal with particular emotions. Fourth, literature makes clear that one person experiences many emotions, and that these sometimes conflict.

Literature by its very nature is selective and suggests integration, connections, insights into experience and values which the individual might not otherwise find for himself. At its best, literature confronts the readers with the basic eternal problems of human-beings thus helping the individual to see himself as a part of an on going history. Some books present a frontal attack on specific problems the pre-adolescent is facing, such as stories of contemporary pre-adolescent life in various places. They like to compare their own experiences with those of the same age growing up in their own culture, other cultures, home and family stories, and settings in the past. Such books will have a way of leading the young into a world of difference. The pre-adolescent’ search for personal value, they want to find a personal direction for their lives and books of social significance will help them find a code of social values for the society.

Dike  (2005)  puts  it  that  literature  has  much  to  contribute  in  these  very  areas-  the problems of growing up; questions of identity and values; relationships with others; inquiry into philosophical  and  ethical  issues.  It  is  also  accorded  importance  for  its  role  in  encouraging reading and helping to develop reading habits and skills for life- long educations and growth. Fiction  literature  helps  by  letting  pre-adolescents  know  that  they  are  not  alone  in  their experiences.  A pre-adolescent  who  is  having  a  relationship  problem  will  find  comfort  and

reassurance  in reading about a similar situation, particularly if the children in the story deal positively with their problems. These stories will be more meaningful to the child if written by indigenous authors who reflect the child’s environment.

Nigerian  authors  are  literary  writers  who  are  indigenes  of  Nigeria  either  by  birth, adoption or by marriage. These authors are conversant with Nigerian cultural groups and social norms. Therefore they will have an insider’s mind- set and point of view and their writings will be authentic and illustration accurate. This will help Nigerian pre-adolescents to have knowledge of the behaviour, belief, standards and motives prevalent in and around them.

It is necessary at this point to trace the history of Nigerian literature for pre-adolescents. Before colonialism, Nigerian children derived their literary and aesthetic pleasures through listening to stories, proverbs, riddles and jokes told by adults. Under the colonial master, fiction books  were  written  and  published  abroad,  Nigeria  pre-adolescents  were  exposed  to  strange cultural background, which conflicted with Nigerian norms. Until very recently, literature to the Nigerian student meant Shakepeare, Chancer, Hardy, Dickens, Jane Austen, George Eliot and a host of other British authors. For a long time those authors’ works formed the major texts in literature courses in Nigerian schools where instruction was conducted in English: legacy of the colonial period. Students in the upper classes in high school as well as colleges and universities normally read the complete and unabridged versions of these British literature texts.

In junior classes, simplified and abridged works of English literature classics such as Treasure  Island,  Oliver  Twist  and  Shakespeare’s  work  were  recommended  as literary  texts. Although these watered down versions were easier to read, children were still dealing with the original story, which may not be easily accessible to them. The language of these literary classics was remote from these students and difficult for them to understand without a dictionary. Most

of the texts dealt with issues and concept that were outside their cultural milieu. Young Nigerian students did not easily understand the meaning of most of the terms. This was clearly portrayed in the aim of education during the colonial era according to Fafunwa quoted by Osa (1987), The goal was to train at least a class of persons, Nigerian in blood but English in opinion, in morals and intellect. Inherent in the above excerpt was a quest to assimilate people in the old British colonies culture. It was therefore not a surprise that the literature read by Nigerian youths prior to

1960  was  preponderantly  British,  a literature  into  which  Nigerian  youths  could  not  readily project  themselves.  A literature  produced  out  of the  Nigerian  experiences  will  readily give meaning to them. Nigerian personality in the main can only be asserted through cultural emancipation. Truly, it is literature that transmits the cultural heritage best to children.

Literature is acknowledged as a rich source for helping children to clarify their own values, understand themselves, examine and appreciate the complexity of the world about them and of human relations in this respect”, declared Odejide and James (1981)

The first full length Nigerian children’s novels to be written were Ekwensi’s passport of Mallan Ilia (1960) and Drummer Boy (1960) which represented the earliest literary fiction in Nigerian children’s literature. They were written at the level of the upper primary and lower secondary school children. Other works that followed  quickly for the same  age group  were Ekwensi’s An African Night’s Entertainment (1962), Fuja’s Fourteen Hundred coweries (1962), Akinse Moyin’s Twilight and the Tortoise (1963), Twilight Tales (1965), Anizoba’s Mbuqwe the frog (1965), Onadipe’s the Adentures of Souza (1963), Koku Babono (1965) and Sequn’s My father’s  daughter  (1965) These early writings  tended  to be either traditional  stories, mostly folktales, or real life stories, either family or adventure  stories. James and Odejide’s (1981) survey of English literature available to Nigerian children in 1970s revealed a total of 47 English

literature  for the children  within the upper primary and  lower secondary school. Since then creative writing for Nigerian children has been a growing phenomenon. Dike (1985) was of the opinion that the development of Nigerian fiction was motivated by the felt need for a literature that would more adequately reflect indigenous views and realities.

Ozurumba (1999) stated that Nigerian authors like Chinua Achebe, Cyprian Ekwenis, Ken Sarowiwa, Onuora Nzekwu, Anezi Okoro, Flora Nwapa, oladele Taiwo had written many works of fiction for children’s use. All of them were geared towards making the child appreciate his  environment  and  at the  same  time  have  a sense  of belonging.  Early titles  were  mostly “supplementary readers”, so called to encourage adoption as school texts. They were not mostly novels to encourage reading and were also meant for entertainment.  Most of the early Nigerian fiction writers hailed from Igbo and Yoruba speaking areas. Hausa authors were not motivated to write fiction books for pre-adolescents, since their primary school lessons were predominately taught with Hausa language. However, today there are books for children in upper primary and lower  secondary  by Hausa  authors.  Early  books  for  pre-adolescents  were  mostly  published overseas before the indigenization of publishing companies and this made the books expensive and most times not available. The leading series by 1960’s and 1970s were the African Readers library of the African universities press, Nelson’s Rapid Readers, Longman’s palm library for Younger Readers, OUP’s Adventures in Africa and the Evans Africa library. There were also titles from the new indigenous publishing houses, like nwamife and Onibonoje, such as How the leopard got His claws by Achebe, Febechi and Group in cava Adventure by Anezi Okoro, papa Ojo and his family by Remi Adedeji etc. Later, many other publishing companies came up, and many titles were published. Today, there are many types of fiction books written by Nigerian authors,   published   and   illustrated   by  Nigerians   for  pre-adolescents   some  of  these   are Macmillan’s  pacesetter  series,  Ekwesi  Juju  Rock,  Nwankwo’s  More  Tales  out  of  School,

Meniru’s The Drums of Joy, Okoro’s The village school and one week one trouble, Nwakoby’s Ten in the family, Ofurum’s A welcome for Chijioke, Eze Goes to school, tales out of school, Foot steps in the Dark, A Lucky Chance, Akin gose to school and many others.

Many works have been done by writers and critiques of children’s books on evaluation of children literature books such as James and Odejide’s (1981) Dike (1985) Campton and Skelton (1982), and Okafor (1987). Some were specifically on pre adolescents but none has taken an analysis of pre-adolescents’ fiction literature in South East Zone Nigeria for the past ten years (1999 to 2009)

Statement of the Problem.

Dike (2005) pointed out that the treatment of issues in pre-adolescent literature was not in dept nor the approach from a young person’s point of view she suggested that there should be a fresh touch to their literature, especially in its content. Acholomu (1989), reiterated these inadequacies and then recommended a revision of the literature books in line with the criteria of the children’s age and level of language.

Pre-adolescents are leaders of tomorrow so their healthy growth and development should be our concern. If there is mal-mental and psychological development in this children, it will affect our Nation drastically  in terms of formulation of policies, educational standards, just to mention a few. It is in this respect that the researcher considered it necessary to analyse fiction books written by Nigerian authors for pre-adolescents to find out if and how far they portray their developmental needs and how relevant they are to the audience for whom they are intended.

Purpose of the Study

The purpose of this research is to analyse the fiction books for pre-adolescents published in South East Nigeria. The specific objectives of the study are as follows:-

1.         To examine major themes in relation to pre- adolescents’ needs.

2.         To identify the demographic characteristic of the main  character in the novels.

3.         To ascertain the relationships featured in the novels.

4          To ascertain moral values illustrated in the fiction books for pre- adolescents.

5.         To identify the elements of culture featured in the fiction literature for pre-adolescents.

Research Questions

To give direction to the study, the following research questions were formulated

1.         What are major themes of the fiction books in relation to pre-adolescent’s need?

2.         What are the demographic characteristics of the main character in the novels?

3.         What relationships are featured in the novels?

4          What are the moral values illustrated in fiction books for Nigerian pre-adolescents?

5.         What are the elements of culture featured in the fiction for re-adolescents?

Significance of the Study

This study will be significant to the literary writers, senior primary and junior secondary school administration, Children’s Librarians,  Pre- adolescents and also to other researchers.

It is hoped that this study will be of immense importance to literary writers especially those writing  for pre- adolescents because it will reveal pre- adolescents developmental needs which will facilitate their writing.

To the senior primary and junior secondary school administration, it is hoped that the result of this study will expose the right literature for this age group. This will help them acquire fiction books which are meaningful and fulfilling pre-adolescents’ needs.

To children’s  librarians, this work will reveal fiction books which correspond  to the child’s world and interest. Therefore it will help them in the acquisition of library books.

More, to pre-adolescents, this work will expose quality of books that can arrest and sustain their interest so that they will desire for more.

This study on completion is expected to be of importance to other researchers because it will be a spring  board  for future research on related study.

Lastly, this work is important to library and information science department because it will add to its literature.

Scope of the Study

This study is aimed at analyzing critically fiction books for pre-adolescents published within ten years interval, from 1999- 2009. The study covered only the registered firms in south- East Zone of Nigeria.

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