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SOURCE: Ofuani, Ogo A. “Digression as Discourse Strategy in Okot p'Bitek's Dramatic Monologue Texts.” Research in African Literatures 19, no. 3 (fall 1988): 312-40.
In the following essay, Ofuani examines the effects of digression in p'Bitek's poetic monologues.
This paper discusses the use of digression as discourse strategy in Okot p'Bitek's dramatic monologue texts: Song of Lawino, Song of Ocol, Two Songs (Song of Prisoner, Song of Malaya).
What marks a digression is precisely the fact that “it is not directly related, syntactically, semantically, and even pragmatically, to the main conversational distribution of its adjacent utterances.” In short, a digression does not fit into the “mainstream of conversation.” It breaks the pattern which consists in each utterance adequately “responding” to the preceding one, a pattern which seems to characterize any nondigressive stretch of conversation (Dascal and Katriel). However, the presence of digressions in utterances often does not necessarily make them incoherent...
This section contains 10,801 words (approx. 37 pages at 300 words per page) |
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