This paper illustrates the significance of the epistolary short story within the cultural backgrounds of the various settings in the stories selected for the study. The short stories deployed in this essay are Karen King-Aribisala’s ‘Dear Okonkwo,’ Dul Johnson’s ‘Cinders of the Volcano,’ Kasimma Chinelo Okani’s ‘A Letter to the Dead,’ and Chuma Nwokolo’s ‘The Ransom Letters of Sisi Eko.’ The methodology adopted in this study is textual and qualitative deployed through an in-depth study of the selected stories and a (...) literary analysis of the data obtained thereafter. This study adopts the new formalism critical approach with the belief that literature should be studied as a combination of the artistic content and the society that produces it. This essay finds that the Nigerian epistolary short story is significant in the promotion and enablement of necromancy, provision of emotional and psychological therapy and promotion of moral rectitude in the society. (shrink)

This paper examines the narrative techniques; setting, focalization and flashback, employed by Adekunle Mamudu and Sophia Akhuemokhan in The Beauty of Madness and Changing Colors respectively, to arouse deep meanings and intense emotions. These techniques contribute to the message the writers intend to pass across to the readers. While Akhuemokhan uses these techniques in Changing Colors to teach morals and promote ethnic principles, Mamudu’s aim in The Beauty of Madness is to expose some ills revolving in the society and (...) launch sanity back to the society. (shrink)