Journal of African Studies and Sustainable Development

J.K. Anowe is one of the emergent groups of poets that have been described by critics as 'confessional poets' because of their extremely personal and autobiographical nature of their verse. The emergence of J.K. Anowe and his contemporaries at this point in time can arguably be linked to the continued spread of the postmodern culture around the world, enabled by the invention of the internet and social media which has led to Africa experiencing further cultural diffusion. However, scholarly research about this group of poets is lamentably scarce. Therefore this paper attempts to fill the lacuna by studying some selected poems by J.K. Anowe, and these are 'Stranger', 'Letter to Lucille' and 'You Sing of a Leaving'. These poems are purposively chosen for their romantic and sexual themes. Deploying certain aspects of psychoanalysis as propounded by Sigmund Freud, Carl Jung and Jacques Lacan, this paper attempts to show how the poet in his search for autotomy and meaning in his love affairs, depicts raw emotional intensity and existential angst, against the background of the chaos of an empty, postmodern universe.The paper's findings indicate that our society is undergoing a tremendous change influenced by the western-inspiredpostmodern culture .The paper concludes that the emergence of self-absorbed poets such as J.K. Anowe and his contemporaries is symptomatic of this change taking place in Africa.

Open Full Text (PDF)