Thesis Defence: Representations of The Internet Scam in Will Ferguson’s 419 and Adaobi Tricia Nwaubani’s I Do Not Come to You by Chance

Oluwatoyin Fagbamila, supervised by Dr. David Jefferess, will defend their thesis titled “Representations of The Internet Scam in Will Ferguson’s 419 and Adaobi Tricia Nwaubani’s I Do Not Come to You by Chance” in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in English.
An abstract for Oluwatoyin Fagbamila’s thesis is included below.
Defences are open to all members of the campus community as well as the general public. Registration is not required for in-person defences.
Abstract
My thesis engages with two novels, Adaobi Tricia Nwaubani’s I Do Not Come to You by Chance and Will Ferguson’s 419, to explore the depiction of internet scams in Nigeria, popularly known as 419, in both texts. Through a comparative analysis of both texts, I argue that the portrayal of Nigeria is influenced by the differing worldviews and positionalities of the authors. Will Ferguson is an acclaimed Canadian novelist and humorist, while Adaobi Tricia Nwaubani is a Nigerian journalist and author. By undertaking a close reading of both novels through an examination of the authors’ use of focalization, characterization, style, setting and language, I argue that both novels contribute to existing global narratives about Nigeria in different ways. My MA thesis begins with the introduction, where I problematize extant representations of internet scams Nigeria in the global media, historicize advance-fee fraud in the Nigerian context, and engage with existing works on the selected novels to highlight the knowledge gap I intend to fill. The first research chapter, titled “The Politics of Interiority” explores characterization in both novels to examine focalization as a strategy used to amplify the voices of certain characters at the detriment of others. This is achieved through the examination of character tropes found in both novels, namely the scammer, the big man, and the female characters. In the second research chapter, entitled “Narrating the Postcolony,” I examine the interplay of style, setting, and audience expectations on the presentation of the narrative in both novels. In this chapter, I argue that while Nwaubani presents Nigeria through the lens of social realism, Ferguson turns to postcolonial exoticism in his narration of Nigerian spaces, culture, and religion. Finally, my conclusion reflects on the implications of undertaking a comparative analysis of Nigerian and Canadian literature, taking into consideration how both books navigate the global publishing industry and the significance of this analysis for thinking about how ideas about Nigeria spread globally.