Abstract:
This paper seeks to expand discourse on revolutionary aesthetics, a historically inevitable phenomenon that naturally sprouts out in a world of deprivation and marginalization. The enablers of this philosophy are the bourgeoisie and the insensitive ruling class that treat the masses with disdain. Essentially, the study investigates Revolutionary aesthetics in Toni Duruaku’s Thorns on Liberty Road as a typical and timely political allegory that mirrors the agitations of the various disgruntled and marginalized sections of the African continent, which demand justice and self-determination, as a result of a prolonged condition of deprivation and frustration. The play drips with Revolutionary aesthetics as the protagonist, Obiagu, struggles with the contradictions of a state-captured society and the various “thorns” on the path of liberty to champion the cause of liberation for his people. His Ndichukwu community is the economic capital of Obiala, having abundant resources and paying the highest taxes to the authorities, yet it is marginalized politically, thereby giving them a sense of alienation and estrangement. Consequently, this creates a binary of the overfed, rich marginal group and the repressed, poor marginalized side. The paper makes crucial findings hinged on the fact that injustice and marginalization of any kind are catalysts of underdevelopment. Since literature offers pathways to social development and reforms, the study prescribes a non-violent revolution driven by engagement, dialogue, sensitization, and protest, identifying them as a sustainable panacea for social change and reform. The methodology deployed in the study is qualitative as relevant aspects of setting, theme and characterization from the primary text of Thorns on Liberty Road and excerpts from various critical texts are explored and interrogated in light of the Revolutionary aesthetics embedded in them.
Keywords: Revolutionary aesthetics, Political allegory, Marginalized, Marginal group, Non-violent resistance
DOI: www.doi.org/10.36349/tjllc.2025.v04i02.016
author/Dr. Ugochukwu Ogechi Iwuji & Amarachi Christiana Kelechi-Ejingini
journal/Tasambo JLLC 4(2) | July 2025 |
