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Article Title: Interrogating Power Relations in Contemporary Nigeria: Protest and Social Relevance in Festus Iyayi's Violence
by Niyi Akingbe, Christopher Babatunde Ogunyemi and Abosede Adebola Otemuyiwa

Abstract:
Literature is a product of the social and historical circumstances of a particular society. This underscores Aristotelian position that society itself is political, since it involves the organization and the government of men. Festus Iyayi's Violence interrogates power relations in contemporary Nigeria, with the understanding that art must first seek to transform society's dehumanising conditions if it is to establish a system in which humanity can give free rein to its self-expression, self-fulfillment and maximum self-realization. This paper argues that when art runs counter to the interest of the dominant class in society, the attitude of that class to art changes. In conformity with the view of Irving Howe, Iyayi observes that protest and social relevance provide a particular severe test for the writer in confronting institutionalized social vices.

Keywords: interrogating power, relations, protest, violence and social relevance

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