Reading Azodo Linguistically: Corpus, Criticism, and African Literary Discourse
Conference: The 23rd Annual International Conference of the Igbo Studies Association (ISA) (2026)
Presenter(s): Chidi Igwe
Presentation Date: May 04, 2026 @ 12:31 PM
Abstract
This paper offers a corpus-assisted linguistic study of selected English and French writings by Ada Uzoamaka Azodo. It approaches her literary criticism not only as interpretation, but as a specialized authorial corpus whose terminology, lexical patterns, textual organization, and pragmatic choices produce African literary and cultural meaning. Drawing on corpus linguistics and la linguistique textuelle, the paper examines key conceptual fields in Azodo’s critical discourse, including literature, criticism, creativity, culture, society, Africa, women, tradition, language, environment, spirituality, Négritude, and oral tradition. These terms reveal how Azodo revalues literary criticism as creative discourse, frames African literature as social and cultural memory, and reads literature as a site of ethical, gendered, ecological, and spiritual reflection. The paper argues that linguistic analysis can enrich African literary studies by showing how criticism itself functions as language, text, and cultural action. In Azodo’s work, criticism does not merely explain literature; it participates in the preservation, interpretation, and renewal of African literary and cultural knowledge.
Keywords: Ada Uzoamaka Azodo; corpus linguistics; African literary criticism; textual linguistics; terminology; African literature.
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