Journal of Literature, Languages and Linguistics www.iiste.org ISSN 2422-8435 An International Peer-reviewed Journal Vol.66, 2020 24 A Critical Discourse Analysis of Soyinka’s The Beatification of Area Boy Dr. Francis Setonji YEDE Department of English, Michael Otedola College of Primary Education, Lagos, Nigeria Abstract This paper is a Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) of Soyinka’s The Beatification of Area Boy. It critically interrogates the pattern of speech of the characters and its relation to how social power abuse and inequality are enacted, reproduced and resisted in the text. The analysis of the text unravels the perennial issues of corruption, poverty and societal imbalance which exemplify socio-political problems in Nigeria. There is also the reflection of the use of discursive features such as a variety of simple, compound and complex sentences to achieve pragmatic functions of social and interpersonal language use like interrogating issues, declaring personal motive and commenting on socio-political issues. These functions reflect communicative interactions in the realm of political, economic and cultural practices of Nigerians in the conversation situations analysed in the texts. Analysis of the text illustrates the view of the deprived people and shows that those who are in power are responsible for the use of language to create power and social inequality. CDA is therefore a useful tool to access salient information in texts and talk in order to checkmate power abuse and social inequality. The paper concludes that Soyinka’s use of language in the text foregrounds social imbalance and disorientation of the people by the ruling class. Keywords: Critical Discourse Analysis, Social Inequality, Ideology, Abuse of Political Power, Power Relation. DOI: 10.7176/JLLL/66-04 Publication date:March 31 st 2020 INTRODUCTION The Beatification of Area Boy (Henceforth, The Beatification) one of Soyinka’s plays was published in 1995. The play dwells on socio-economic barricades put up against the populace by the ruling class in Nigeria. The Beatification satirises and pin-points many issues, modes and characters identifiable in all sectors of the contemporary socio-cultural and economic landscape of Nigeria. The main issues in The Beatification are poverty and class distinction perpetrated by the ruling class against the commoners through the instrument of social war. Many of the major characters in the plays are victims of the social, economic and political war perpetrated by the political class and visited on the hapless poor who constitute the majority of the Nigerian population. Soyinka reflects on the kind of war that government declares against the people through the execution or non execution of official policies. Such is the war that dislocates or disorientates millions of citizens with heart rending consequences. MAMA PUT: Those that turned our fields of garden eggs and prize tomatoes into mush, pulp and putrid flesh – they plundered the livestock, uprooted yam and cassava and what did they plant in their place? The warm bodies of our loved ones. (The Beatification p. 21) The above presents the image of destruction, wanton killing, chaos, insecurity, and the losses that are associated with war. Dehumanisation of humanity is painted through gory imagery. The effect on the psyche of an individual is pent-up-anger and dangerous emotional out-burst captured in the quotation above. The Beatification is an illumination of the societal belief in ritual money making due to pervasive poverty situation of the citizens. To convince the readers, the play pinpoints the situation with the illustration of the human body parts believed to be the potent materials for money making rituals to illuminate the shared popular belief in ritual money making among the poor or the downtrodden in the socio-economic situation of the Nigerian society. It shows the society that has become dangerous, inhuman, apathetic and numb to the feeling and the plight of its citizens. (The Beatification p.15) The Beatification as a literary works can be studied from the perspectives of content, form and style which can be understood by subjecting the text to careful Critical Discourse Analysis. The language used by Soyinka reflects the contemporary socio-political situations and problems in Nigeria and also, it serves as a tool for correction of defective socio-political practices. THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK OF THE STUDY Critical Discourse Analysis (henceforth CDA) “focuses on social problems and especially on the roles of discourse in the production and reproduction of power abuse or domination” (van Dijk, 2001:96). CDA sets up a relationship between language and power. In that sense, Wodak (2001) regards it as fundamentally concerned with analyzing opaque as well as transparent structural relationships of dominance, discrimination, power and control as manifested in language. Fairclough (2001:125) defines CDA as “a form of critical social science geared towards illuminating the