LANGUAGE, LITERATURE AND CULTURE

Abstract

This paper seeks to examine the roles played by language, literature and culture in enhancing people’s knowledge of their environment and that of others. The paper takes a look at some of the definitions of language, literature and culture and concludes that the relationship among the three is interwoven. From a brief history of the evolution of the English language in West Africa, the paper states that the variety of the language used in African creative writing is a domesticated variety of the English language. Literature on its own cannot thrive alone because it is the resources of language that it uses to disseminate information. Literature, therefore, is the aesthetic manifestation of language. Culture shows itself in everything – language, literature, and in the behaviour of people. The paper also uses The Blinkards, a play by Sebina Sekyi to bring the point closer, that the three, concepts are concerned with the growth, improvement and development of the society. The paper concludes that language, literature and culture are used as a rich resource to develop and reawaken the consciousness of man to positive societal norms and values.