Impoliteness and the artefacts of satirical discourse in Pius Adesanmi’s Naija No Dey Carry Last

Abstract

Within the Nigerian socio-political space, satire has been the melting pot of socio-political criticisms. Previous related studies have interrogated satire as manifested in different genres of literature. However, there is a dearth of studies on the manifestation of satire in essay-oriented expressions, especially from a discoursepragmatics outlook. This study, therefore, explores impoliteness strategies in Nigerian satirical discourse. With data retrieved from Pius Adesanmi’s Naija No Dey Carry Last, the study is guided by Culpeper’s taxonomy of impoliteness to analyse satirical commentaries from the text. Findings revealed that Adesanmi deploys different discursive strategies to communicate impoliteness. Four impoliteness strategies were realised through eight discursive strategies. These strategies are metaphorisation, negativisation, animated dialogue, animated biblical narrative, patronisation, insincere appellation, inappropriate identification, and deresponsibilisation. These strategies foreground impoliteness within the larger discourse of satire.