Developing an Original Theory of Classical Literary Canon Formation and Its Nigerian Reception: A Decolonial Approach

The formation of the classical literary canon, the process by which certain ancient Greek and Latin texts were designated as essential, worthy of transmission, and universally significant, was not a neutral process but a politically and ideologically laden selection that served specific social functions at different historical moments. Its Nigerian reception through colonial education further complicated its politics. This study develops an original theory of classical literary canon formation and its Nigerian reception, deploying a decolonial theoretical approach. A theoretical-historical methodology was adopted, drawing on canon formation theory (Guillory, Bloom, Graff), decolonial theory (Mignolo, Quijano, Grosfoguel), and empirical investigation of the Nigerian colonial and post-colonial reception of canonical classical texts through archival research, analysis of secondary school and university classical reading lists from 1900 to 2023, and interviews with 40 Nigerian educators, literary scholars, and students. The original Decolonial Canon Theory (DCT) proposed identifies four stages in the decolonial transformation of the classical literary canon in the Nigerian context: imperial imposition (colonial canon as instrument of cultural hierarchy), nationalist appropriation (selective embrace of canonical texts as resources for independence discourse), critical subversion (postcolonial writers' deployment of canonical texts as targets of ironic critique), and generative reconstruction (the emerging scholarly project of constructing an African classical canon alongside and in dialogue with the European). The DCT constitutes an original contribution to both canon theory and postcolonial literary studies.

Keywords: literary canon formation, decolonial theory, classical texts, Nigerian reception, original theory