Criticism versus stylistics: an analysis of their areas of overlap and contrast

Literature, especially the imaginative type has as its major onus, to delight. However, if the only function of fiction is to delight, then it becomes a mere waste of effort to study it. Literature should be a mirror of the author’s society and so, any literature that does not educate the reader should be regarded as a trivial one not worthy to take the reader’s time. Literary writers therefore, write to entertain but more importantly, to educate. To write the type of literature that would perform the said functions, the writer follows certain laid down rules as well as apply his or her ingenuity to come up with a worthwhile work of art. The researchers in this paper affirmed that though stylistics overlaps with criticism in a number of areas, a great deal of discrepancy exists between them. This paper therefore, showed how criticism differs significantly from stylistics so that the illusion nursed by many that the two concepts are synonymous would be averted.Keywords: Stylistics, criticism, appreciation, literature, linguistic choice

A Fictional X-ray of the Contemporary Society: a Study of Akachi Adimora-Ezeigbo’s Trafficked

Akachi Adimora-Ezeigbo is one of the contemporary writers who strongly affirm that a true fiction must aptly mirror the world of the writer. This, she vividly demonstrates in her Trafficked. Adimora-Ezeigbo got her  inspiration for the fiction from historical and contemporary facts. In our contemporary society, female  trafficking is on the increase. Many unpatriotic citizens indulge in the illegal deal which they see as a very  lucrative business. Unwary young women are lured into international sex trade with lots of tantalizing  promises that would eventually turn to illusions. Trafficking is frowned at in Nigeria, yet people are perpetually trafficked. In this research work, the researcher examines the novel in line with sociological approach so that the ills of human trafficking as it is a case in the contemporary society would be seen. The researcher believes that when the ills are exposed, there would be reformation