ISSN 2360-7998
Abstract
Accepted 3rd March, 2015
By convention, critical readership of literary materials obliges the reader to place more values on the humans than the non-humans, which, very often, is factorial of the human. This restriction to liberal objectivity has subjected readership to the crucible of humanism – a barrier to evolving understandings of readership, which might enrich discourse in other disciplines such as Chemistry. The bearing of the current research, ‘thing theory’, views all disciplines as organic whole recommending dynamism of imagination to critical conservatives often not enamored by the vagaries of literary fruition. With new life breathed into objects such as kola in such a statement as “He who brings cola brings life” critically explored with insinuating effects in the literary text under study, readers’ scientific imagination is expanded to benefit from the emerging interdisciplinary fields of theory as an adventure of discovery into the very heart of Chemistry to exhume life principles and truths buried in physical matter. The aim of this study is to enrich interdisciplinary discourse with a burning curiosity to explore new meanings and untapped energies buried in medical plants and natural products represented in literary works.
Keywords: Medical plant, natural product chemistry, Achebe’s ‘things fall apart’, kola