THE EPISTLE AS A MEDIUM OF COMMUNICATION: AN ANALYSIS OF ABUBAKAR GIMBA’S LETTERS TO MY CHILDREN AND MARIAMA BA’S SO LONG A LETTER.

Abstract

Communication is an act of exchanging information from one point to another; it is a very important activity of life. Humans and animals communicate in different ways and for different purposes. Communication could be either oral or written. However, the major concern of this work is the written form of communication .Written communication is the exchange of information through letters, e-mails, blog etc.There are different forms of written communication one of which is ‘the epistle’. Epistles are a means of delivering communication through the use of letters. An epistolary novel on the other hand is a novel written as a series of documents in the form of a letter. Abubakar Gimba’s letters to My Children and Mariama Ba’s So Long a Letter are the selected texts for this research work. Therefore, this work sets out to explore the works of these two great feminist writers who in their artistic efforts employed a unique style of writing ‘the epistolary’ in order to convey their message(s) to their readers.