Eminent Nigerians eulogise Karen King Aribisala at book launch

It was a celebration of excellence and creative ingenuity of a woman who has touched many lives with her literary aptitude. Eminent Nigerians, colleagues, students and lovers of literature gathered on Wednesday 24^th of July 2019 at the Afe Babalola hall of the University of Lagos to honour Dr. Karen King-Aribisala, a Professor of English at the unveiling of her book ‘Our Wives and other stories’.
The event which was well attended especially by the Nigerian literary community saw lovers of literature celebrate one of their own.
At the heart of Our Wife and Other Stories, as King-Aribisala describes is the theme of cultural alienation–an abstraction which nevertheless has concrete resonance for her protagonists, who are immigrants in Nigeria, and who feel (real or imagined) they are outsiders, cultural and otherwise. King-Aribisala’s protagonists are all female–Nigerian, West Indian, and European–and their stories are compact, short explorations of the theme, and perhaps best show how a close look at the dynamics of their marriages can be useful for examining some of the complexities of their condition of alienation.
Speaking in his capacity as the Chief host of the event, Prof. Oluwatoyin Ogundipe the Vice Chancellor of the University of Lagos said: ”The University is about scholarship, it is about research finding solutions to the problems going within and outside of the country”. He also commended the author for her contributions to the Nigerian literary landscape.
The author, Dr Karen also read a chapter from the book, dramatizing it in such a way that the characters came alive as she performed the story on stage . There were cheers from the audience who were enthralled by her reading.
The launch was attended by Prof Oluwatoyin Ogundipe, the Vice Chancellor of the University, Professor Folashade Ogunshola the DVC, Professor Ebun Clarke, Founder and Managing Director of the Lagos School of English and Mathematics (LASEM) and a host of others.
 

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