A New Historical Interrogation of Liwhu Betiang’s The Cradle on the Scales

One of the major tasks of New Historicists is to examine how the writer’s time affects their work, and how their work also reflects the undercurrents of the time. This arises from the popular position that society is an inter-web of consistent change, and as it changes, it equally affects every sphere of life including literature. Thus, the writer being a sensitive member of the society is left with no option than to conceive, portray and examine social changes in a specialised creative manner depending on their level of consciousness and commitment of such writers. It is against this backdrop that this paper critiques Liwhu Betiang’s The Cradle on the Scales. Through close reading and analysis of some extrapolations from the text and using New Historicism as theoretical framework, the paper reveals that the period within which a novel is written affects the configuration of the narrative. The paper concludes that the socio-political and economic concerns explored in the novel create a vivid fictive universe that is realistic of the Nigerian Society of the 21st century.

Keywords: New Historicism Socio-Economic Change Nigeria

Authors

• Mariastella Umoren
  Department of General Studies, Akwa Ibom State Polytechnic
  Ikot Osura, Akwa Ibom State
• Kufre A. Akpan
  Department of English,
  Akwa Ibom State University, Nigeria