LITERARY DEVICES IN TENDAI HUCHU'S THE HAIRDRESSER OF HARARE AND AKWAEKE EMEZI'S THE DEATH OF VIVEK OJI

ABSTRACT

This study examines the literary techniques used in contemporary African literature, placing focus on two prominent African writers Akwaeke Emezi and Tendai Huchu. This study sheds light on the writers use of these literary techniques to portray the traditional/contemporary African society, her cultures and her beliefs. The novelists depict the issues faced by Africans using different theories like the sociological, Marxist, Queer, moralist and psychoanalytical. But the main focus of this study is on the Formalistic approach to the examination of both novels. The approach looks at literary works from the perspective that focuses critically on the texts itself, it looks at the structure, pattern and literary devices employed in the novels. This study follows the key rules required in analysing a literary work with the formalist theory. It looks at the way formalism places importance on the careful and close reading of a text in order to not just reaveal inherent meaning but to understand the structures and aesthetic patterns of the novels 6 This work focuses mainly on the plot, setting, literary devices and the different point of views employed in the texts, it also adopts the qualitative research method.