THE SOCIO-POLITICAL LANDSCAPE IN POSTMODERN NIGERIA: A STUDY OF LABO YARI’S A HOUSE IN THE DARK AND OTHER STORIES

Abstract

This paper examines the matrix of postmodern realities in Nigeria. It explores the representative power of fiction as a means of engaging the realities of our time. With reference to Yari’s A House in the Dark and Other Stories, this paper highlights contemporary issues within the Nigerian socio-political landscape. Issues explored in this light include global warming, rural-urban migration, marriage, individualism, religion, social injustice and the realities of postmodern perversions and materialism. These issues are explores to show how man not only embody but also complicate these issues in his search for “happiness”. The paper finds that the thematic interests of the stories in Yari’s collection are a representation of the postmodern condition and contemporary Nigerian reality. Thus, it yet speaks to this generation and bears the enduring quality of a good literary work.