The Print Media and the Evolution of Third-Generation Nigerian Poetry

Abstract

Previous literary scholarship and critical allusions to the evolution of Nigerian literature have unanimously acknowledged the emergence of a third generation of Nigerian poetry. This development which gained accentuation between 1980 and 2000, threw up an avalanche of successors to the second-generation poets, notably: Odia Ofeimun, Tanure Ojaide, Niyi Osundare, Okinba Launko, Catherine Acholonu and Omolara Ogundipe-Leslie. Despite the visible numerical strength of this new generation of writers; their aggregate prolificity and their gross contribution to our national creative output, adequate seminal attention has not been paid to the role of the print media in the catalysation of this milieu. This study, therefore, situates the third generation of Nigerian poets and their works, within the context that they are bonafide products of the print media. They sprouted and flourished in an era where creative activity, triggered by national socio-economic realities, bloomed without collateral and commensurate outlets for the expression of this creative outburst. They have continued to sustain the richness and robustness of Nigeria’s poetic traditions. Their continuing commitment to socio-political engagements has reinforced the enterprise of preceding generations. This study will constitute a veritable reference material on the emerging corpus of critical discourse on the evolution of Nigerian poetry, deriving from the pages of Nigerian newspapers, en route to the 20th century.