Eighteenth International Conference on New Directions in the Humanities

Abstract

Literature reflects the historical and social realities of the author’s settings. Poetry is therefore a potent weapon of exploring socio-political maladies that affect society as well as a platform for advocating social change. It is the effect of the historic conditions under the bourgeois class established its political, economic, and ideological dominance. This paper examines Marxist agitation in Niyi Osundare’s ‘Songs of the Market place (1983) through Marxist critical theory. As Ogunpitan avers that “literature of an age reflects the prevalent social realities in the society in which it operates “. Since man is situated historically and socially, the social and historical shape man’s life. The masses want a better standard of living, equal treatment and a classless society. This undertaking reveals that the masses are deprived of their rights, subjugated, marginalized, and exploited. It concludes that for the common people to be liberated, there must be an uprising which will ultimately usher in a new beginning and a classless society.