A Critical Stylistics Study of Dissent in Soyinka's Madmen and Specialists

This study explores a critical stylistics analysis of dissent in Wole Soyinka’s Madmen and Specialists, employing Jeffries’ (2010) critical stylistics and Halliday’s (1985) systemic functional linguistics as theoretical framework. Soyinka’s play, set in the aftermath of the Nigerian civil war, illustrates a bleak allegory of moral disintegration, authoritarian abuse, and the corrosion of human values. With Jeffries’ toolkit, particularly the textual-conceptual functions, the analysis examines how linguistic choices embody resistance and defiance. Data were derived through close reading of the play’s dialogues, focusing on exchanges between Bero, the authoritarian ex-military doctor, and other characters who embody fragmented opposition. Findings reveal that Soyinka’s dissent is constructed through ironic naming, metaphorical descriptions that destabilise authority, and the strategic representation of speech as fragmented, hesitant, or sarcastically exaggerated. Contrasts between madness and reason, as well as between silence and speech, are also central in portraying resistance as both a linguistic and psychological act. The study argues that Soyinka’s stylistic crafting of dissent goes beyond mere political commentary. It offers a layered critique of postwar disillusionment and the human condition under tyranny. This paper contributes to the growing body of research on African drama, demonstrating how linguistic form shapes ideological resistance in literary discourse.