PSYCHO-SCHEMATIC TENSIONS AND RHETORICAL STRATEGIES IN ABUBAKAR ADAM IBRAHIM’S SEASON OF CRIMSON BLOSSOMS AND THE WHISPERING TREES

Abstract

This study examines psycho-schematic tensions and rhetorical strategies in Abubakar Adam Ibrahim’s Season of Crimson Blossoms and The Whispering Trees. The study adopts a qualitative, interpretive approach based on Hassan’s (2023) Psychoanalytical Schemata theory, which integrates psychoanalytic structures with schematic features to explain the relationship between mental processes and linguistic expression. The study’s data consist of purposively selected textual excerpts from Season of Crimson Blossoms and The Whispering Trees featuring three rhetorical categories: litotes, hyperbole, and rhetorical questions. The analysis focuses explicitly on how these rhetorical forms function as psycho-schematic expressive strategies through the interaction of psychoanalytic features, namely the id, ego, superego, and defence mechanisms, with schematic features such as experience, goal, and age. The findings reveal that litotes, hyperbole and rhetorical questions function not merely as stylistic ornaments but as linguistic manifestations of psycho-schematic tussle. Litotes mediates psychological tensions associated with repression, denial, and emotional restraint; hyperbole intensifies experiences of fear, hostility, grief, and suspicion; while rhetorical questions externalise tensions involving guilt, doubt, moral conflicts, and unresolved psychological impulses. At the same time, these rhetorical forms organise individual experiences according to schematic features, making primary psychological processes observable in discourse. The study concludes that rhetorical expressions derive from the interaction of psychological and cognitive processes and that their linguistic manifestation provides insight into the mental structures involved in meaning construction. The study contributes to stylistic scholarship by demonstrating how psychoanalytic and schematic features converge within expressive forms to produce literary meaning.