Morphological Deviation in Africa’s New Brood by Timothy Wangusa

Abstract

This article attempts to examine the use of morphological deviation as a style of foregrounding in Timothy Wangusa’s poetry. Besides, the researcher used the theory of defamiliarization proposed by Viktor Shyklovsky throughout the study. That the theory emphasizes the use of poetic devices makes it an apt one as this very study is on morphological deviation (which is used as a poetic device to achieve emphasis/foregrounding). The researcher used a qualitative approach in this study. The researcher also employed textual analysis method in the process of analysing data in form of poems from Africa’s New Brood. A description of the variable(s) was also given to explicate and make sense of the subject under study which is morphological deviation. The results of the findings from the data analysed prove that Wangusa uses morphological deviation to emphasize his message, shock, or surprise readers (estrangement) and create mood in his poetry. This study recommends that studies be carried out on Wangusa’s use of deviation of register.