Gbemisola Adeoti

Gbemisola Remi Adeoti is a Nigerian academic and poet. He is a professor of Literature in the English Department at Obafemi Awolowo University. He is the author of Naked Soles which was at a time recommended by the Joint Admission and Matriculation Board. Between 2011 and 2015, he served as the Director of the Institute of Cultural Studies, and he was the Dean of the Faculty of Arts from 2015 to 2019 at OAU. Quotes I like reading life narratives. These include non-fictional works such as biography, autobiography, memoir, diary and so on. I always look out for the use of language especially the deployment of literary and figurative devices by the author. Language brings out humour. It is used to create characters and develop them. We rely on language to know the physical environment where actions and events are taking place. We come to deep awareness of the physical composition, emotional tendency, vision, aspiration, dream and the inner being of characters through the use of language. So, I pay attention to all these while reading a text, whether fictional or life narrative. Regardless of the society and the age, my favourite authors across the world are Daniel Olorunfemi Fagunwa, Wole Soyinka, William Shakespeare, Jonathan Swift, Moliere, George Orwell, Ayi Kwei Armah, Femi Osofisan and Ahmed Yerima among others. I am fascinated by their works because in reading them, I encounter their abstractions and approximations of the human world in credibly incredible manner. They present in their works, the twist and turns of life, showing that no condition is ever permanent and that there is no need to give up. Man should keep on moving and struggling in spite of adversity, until he arrives at his goal or destination one day. Prosperity and adversity are the two sides of the same coin that life holds out for humanity. Their books are rich in evanescence of literary condiments – humour, wit, paradox, imagery and so on. They present the authors’ keen observations about life. Thus, we encounter the writer as the reporter, the writer as the chronicler and the writer as the seer. Their works are also ever fresh, as I come out of every reading with new ideas, new insights into the meanings of their works. I also come into a greater awareness of the complexity of the human mind and the natural world. The five novels of D. O. Fagunwa, in their Yoruba original versions and English translations. I mean Ogboju Ode Ninu Igbo Irunmole (The Forest of a Thousand Daemons), Igbo Olodumare (In the Forest of Olodumare), Irinkerindo Ninu Igbo Elegbeje (Expedition to the Mount of Thought), Ireke Onibudo and Adiitu Olodumare (The Mysteries of God). I also find enduring the literary appeal of Ayi Kwei Armah’s The Beautyful Ones are not yet Born, Ngugi wa Thiong’o’s Wizard of the Crow, William Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar and George Orwell’s Animal Farm. I enjoy the boundless possibilities that Fagunwa’s people and places present before the readers. The topical, ever fresh depictions of Africa’s postcolonial predicament in the works of Armah and Ngugi wa Thiong’o leave lasting impression. The futility of inordinate ambition for power and wealth, the wide gap between appearance and reality, the timeless appeal of virtues are all important lessons in the plays of Shakespeare the bard. I enjoy these elements in any work where they are present.