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B N W: Biafra Nigeria World News |
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Theo Vincent, eminent critic, lists gains of literature
WERE the Greek thinker Plato present at University of Lagos on Wednesday, the three hours Prof. Theo Vincent spent highlighting the place of literature in man's development would not have been enough.
Plato and Vincent would probably not have been in agreement, and may have needed more time to arrive at a compromise. Thousands of years ago, the Greek philosopher dismissed poets as mere imitators who had nothing to contribute to man's development.
But yesterday, at his long overdue inaugural lecture, Vincent, a professor of English at the University thought otherwise and he catalogued the benefits of literature to prove his stand.
Vincent's lecture entitled" Every man I will go with thee: The highways of literature" came 22 years after he was appointed to the Chair of English at the university.
He acknowledged the lateness of the lecture and explained that this abnormality was part of the history of the institution.
The renowned literacy critic and erstwhile vice chancellor of the University of Port Harcourt, noted that because he was persuaded that every university professor ought to fulfil the obligation of delivering an inaugural lecture, he felt he should give one before formally retiring from the university. He has been in service for 30 years and is believed to be on the verge of retirements.
According to him, literature is a vector of values, which educates the mind, increases the awareness of the world around man and enables him to communicate better.
He said, literature helps man to come to terms with some ideas, deepens one's critical judgment and enables one to grapple with any situation.
Stressing the beauty of literature, he referred to Keats' "Ode on a Grecean urn." As he put it: "Literature is like the blood in the body. As we tread the highways of life, we need literature by our side to be our companion, to cheer us, to chide us, to humanise us, to warn us and insist on order in our lives and justice in our society."
Vincent dwelt on three factors - time, literature and life - in his lecture. He said: "Time is the one factor which is common to both arts and science and is also central to nature. Time is motion and it is a key concept in science."
"The dazzling achievements of modern science and technology, demonstrated, for instance, in the popular mobile phone contraption or the concept of globalisation and the global village, are all essentially a matter of manipulation of time. Even science has explored the region where time is both finite and infinite in its effort to discover, understand and harass the forces of nature. But showing the element of or quality of motion, life is movement or a journey in time and literature deals with life".
In this poetic sense, Vincent established a nexus among time, life and literature and the interconnectivity of time to all things in the universe.
On the origin of literature, he said: "In the arts, the serious study of literature can be said to have started in the context of political science with Plato's casual dismissal of poets as imitators who had little or nothing to contribute to his noble concept, therefore are irrelevant to his ideal Republic. However, Plato's utopia was flawed because of the inconsistencies it contained, which inadvertently triggered off two crucial motions in the creation, meaning and study of literature".
While extolling the virtues of Vincent, the Vice Chancellor of the university, Prof. Oye Ibidapo-Obe, described the inaugural literature as a showcase of literary dexterity.
He noted that Vincent had convinced his audience that literature is indeed the writers' recitation of life.
The lecturer, he further said, "established very clearly the nexus among time, life and literature because literature records events in time. And if 'In my beginning is my end' and in my end is my beginning as he has established too, therefore the valedictory lecture is indeed an inaugural lecture, considering the inverse relationship between start and finish. Start the inaugural and finish the valedictory. Therefore, a valedictory lecture is also an inaugural lecture".
Vincent joined the University of Lagos in 1970. He graduated from the then University College, Ibadan in 1964 and from 1964 to 1970 taught literature, while studying. After he bagged his doctorate degree, he moved over to the University of Lagos.
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