Empirical Investigation of How Nigerian Undergraduate Students Respond to Non-African World Literature

Understanding how Nigerian undergraduate literature students receive, interpret, and engage with world literary texts from non-African cultural traditions is essential for designing effective Comparative Literature pedagogy and for evaluating the cultural assumptions embedded in comparative literary canons. This study empirically investigated the reading responses of Nigerian undergraduate literature students to three non-African world literary texts: Latin American magical realism, a Chinese modernist short story, and a French existentialist novel. A reader response research methodology was employed, combining reading response journals, small group discussion recordings, and post-reading interviews with 120 third-year literature students from universities in Oyo, Enugu, and Kano States. Three different text selections were assigned to each group, and responses were analysed using thematic analysis. Results showed that students found Latin American magical realism the most culturally accessible of the three non-African traditions, with 74.2 percent identifying strong parallels with Nigerian oral and cosmological traditions. French existentialism generated the most intellectually difficult responses, with students reporting unfamiliarity with its philosophical premises. Chinese modernism was the least discussed and the least referenced in independent student writing. Cross-cultural literary empathy was significantly higher for texts featuring characters experiencing political oppression, conflict, or family tension, suggesting that shared human experience themes are effective entry points for comparative engagement. The study provides empirical evidence for a culturally graduated approach to introducing world literature in Nigerian comparative courses, beginning with oral-tradition-adjacent texts.

Keywords: reader response, world literature, undergraduate students, Nigeria, comparative pedagogy