Contemporary Nigerian Literature and the Idea of a Canon

Contemporary Nigerian literature is product of a multi-ethnic, multi-lingual environment. What distinguishes it from other literatures is a distinct interplay of values, which although present elsewhere, do not combine in the same temporal, historical, geographic or ontological space in the same circumstances and dimensions as those which generate Nigerian literature. Within itself, Nigerian literature has yet to determine what constitutes its core values, although these values are embedded in its narratives. If these values are identified and reiterated, it is possible that a canon of Nigerian literature will be determined. Odozor argues that the category of nation is still valid in literary discourse, because academic and institutional practices and socio-political realities support this theoretical position. He argues that cultural globalization is an imperial ruse. Odozor therefore takes the validity of a Nigerian literature for granted, only identifying and questioning its constituent elements. Although Odozor acknowledges the larger canon debates, he restricts himself to theorizing a model of evaluation for a Nigerian canon.