A CRITICAL DISCOURSE ANALYSIS OF CORRUPTION AS DISCURSIVE PRACTICE IN TEJU COLE'S EVERY DAY IS FOR THE THIEF

This study adopted a critical discourse analysis approach to examine the culture of corruption in Nigeria. Specifically, it analysed the discursive representation of systemic corruption in Nigerian society as portrayed in Teju Cole’s Every Day Is for the Thief. Set in Lagos, the novel illustrates how corruption is embedded in, and perpetuated through the naturalised everyday discourse of members of society. Purposive sampling was employed to select relevant textual data from the novel for analysis. The data were analysed using Halliday’s Systemic Functional Linguistics and van Dijk’s socio-cognitive approach to Critical Discourse Analysis. The findings revealed that language functions both as a tool for sustaining, and for challenging the normalisation of oppression and social inequality in Nigeria. They further demonstrate the author's deliberate use of lexical choices, transitivity patterns, and metaphor to construct the (de)legitimisation of social actors within the discourse of corruption. The critical discourse analysis also shows that the narrative serves as a vehicle through which the author interrogates power relations among citizens, particularly in relation to corrupt practices. The dominant discursive strategies identified include metaphorisation, the normalisation of corruption, the categorisation, and the polarisation of social actors. These linguistic and discursive strategies suggest that public attitudes towards corruption in Nigeria have become increasingly passive rather than confrontational, with corruption being culturally normalised rather than actively resisted. The study therefore argues that the struggle for survival and access to resources within a corrupt society contributes to the (re)production of unequal power relations among citizens.