SOURCE: Ofuani, Ogo A. “Digression as Discourse Strategy in Okot p'Bitek's Dramatic Monologue Texts.” Research in African Literatures 19, no. 3 (fall 1988): 312-40.

In the following essay, Ofuani examines the effects of digression in p'Bitek's poetic monologues.

This paper discusses the use of digression as discourse strategy in Okot p'Bitek's dramatic monologue texts: Song of Lawino, Song of Ocol, Two Songs (Song of Prisoner, Song of Malaya).

What marks a digression is precisely the fact that “it is not directly related, syntactically, semantically, and even pragmatically, to the main conversational distribution of its adjacent utterances.” In short, a digression does not fit into the “mainstream of conversation.” It breaks the pattern which consists in each utterance adequately “responding” to the preceding one, a pattern which seems to characterize any nondigressive stretch of conversation (Dascal and Katriel). However, the presence of digressions in utterances often does not necessarily make them incoherent...