Psycho-schematic tensions and rhetorical strategies in Abubakar Adam Ibrahim’s Season of crimson blossoms and the whispering trees

Authors: Hassan, S. M.

International Journal of Arts, Languages, Linguistics and Literary Studies Vol. 15 (3) pp. 22-35

This study examines psycho-schematic tensions and rhetorical strategies in Abubakar Adam Ibrahim’s Season of Crimson Blossoms and The Whispering Trees. The study adopts a qualitative, interpretive approach based on Hassan’s (2023) Psychoanalytical Schemata theory, which integrates psychoanalytic structures with schematic features to explain the relationship between mental processes and linguistic expression. The study’s data consist of purposively selected textual excerpts from Season of Crimson Blossoms and The Whispering Trees featuring three rhetorical categories: litotes, hyperbole, and rhetorical questions. The analysis focuses explicitly on how these rhetorical forms function as psycho-schematic expressive strategies through the interaction of psychoanalytic features, namely the id, ego, superego, and defence mechanisms, with schematic features such as experience, goal, and age. The findings reveal that litotes, hyperbole and rhetorical questions function not merely as stylistic ornaments but as linguistic manifestations of psycho-schematic tussle. Litotes mediates psychological tensions associated with repression, denial, and emotional restraint; hyperbole intensifies experiences of fear, hostility, grief, and suspicion; while rhetorical questions externalise tensions involving guilt, doubt, moral conflicts, and unresolved psychological impulses. At the same time, these rhetorical forms organise individual experiences according to schematic features, making primary psychological processes observable in discourse.

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My research focuses on language use, meaning construction, and communication, particularly in stylistics, pragmatics, discourse analysis, and the linguistic study of literary and non-literary texts. I am interested in how language represents human experiences, shapes social perceptions, and communicates cultural and ideological meanings.

Semantic-Stylistic Devices and Psychoanalytic Struggles in Abubakar Adam Ibrahim’s Season of Crimson Blossoms and The Whispering Trees

Authors: Hassan, S. M.

Lapai Journal of English Studies (LAJES) Vol. 1 (1) pp. 61-70 - Department of English, Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida University, Lapai

This paper examines the role of semantic-stylistic expressive means, such as paradox, pun, metonymy, and metaphor, in articulating repressed desires and psychological conflicts in selected Nigerian literary texts, specifically Season of Crimson Blossoms and The Whispering Trees. It draws on psychoanalytic theory, particularly Freudian constructs of the id, ego, and superego. The paper interprets stylistic features as manifestations of subconscious tensions experienced by characters and, by extension, the author himself. Through textual analysis of Season of Crimson Blossoms and The Whispering Trees by Abubakar Adam Ibrahim, this argues that semantic expressive devices function not merely as artistic embellishments but as vessels through which latent emotions, social defiance, and cultural anxieties are encoded and expressed.

Stylistic Patterns and Cultural Schemata in Abubakar Gimbal's Witnesses to Tears

Authors: Hassan, S. M.

Lapai Research in Humanities Vol. 8 (3) pp. 92-104 - Faculty of Arts, Ibrahim Badamasi Babangida University, Lapai, Niger State, Nigeria

Stylo-Rhetorical Analysis of President Muhammadu Buhari's Inaugural Addresses

Authors: Ogungbe, EO and Hassan, S M

Yankari Journal of English, Literature and Linguistics (YANJELL) Vol. 1 (1) pp. 339-350 - Department of English, Faculty of Arts and Education, Bauchi State University, Gadau