The aesthetics of invective: reflections on the use of verbal violence in the Suns of Independence of Ahmadou Kourouma

Abstract

In recent times, one major threat to peace and sustainable democratic governance in Ghana is the upsurge of the use of invective language in public discourse. Ahmadou Kourouma’s novel, The suns of independence, which can be classified as a socio-political satire, provides a textual data for a critical analysis of this phenomenon in its aesthetic form. Considering literary products (poetry, drama and prose) as clear manifestations of social discourse, that is communication, this study seeks to examine the use and aesthetic significance of verbal violence in this novel initially published in French as “Les soleils des indépendances” in 1968. In its quest, the study, in the first place, identifies and analyses three forms of invectives considered as verbal violence in use in the novel. In the second place, it examines the causes of their use and their aesthetic or stylistic significance to socio-political discourse in the text, leading to the formulation of critical reflections on the phenomenon as a potential source of socio-political conflict and social disintegration. The study also points out how the intransigent use of vituperation resulting from egocentric pursuits eventually leads to self -destruction. In this regard, The suns of independence provides both historical and contemporary textual material for reflections on the realities of the use of invectives and its aesthetic significance in socio-political discourse in fiction. Combining a range of theoretical frameworks in stylistics and pragmatics in the study of discourse, this paper examines both the methods of textual composition and the strategies of interpretation for invectives in the novel. The significance of this study is found in the general contemporary quest for the use of sanitized language in the Ghanaian socio-political discourse for sustainable democratic development and social cohesion