The backlash from some academics against the introduction of Literature to the academic sphere, especially in the Nigerian polytechnic system validates not only the poor reading culture among the youth of the country but also what has continuously fuelled it. This paper aims at investigating how literature contributes to national discourse through a textual exegesis of a play, Esoteric Dialogue written by Emeka Egwuda and recommended in a reputable tertiary institution. Use of English and Communication in English are some of the language-related courses with the inclusion of literary appreciation, which students of tertiary institutions are exposed to from the National Diploma to the Higher National Diploma programmes. One reason for the inclusion of Literature is to expose students to relevant issues of national importance with a view to inculcating moral values that would stimulate patriotism and national development. To explicate the literary texts, we adopted Crystal and Davy's (1985) Linguistic stylistic model as a tool of analysis to uncover the communicative and stylistic essence of the literary texts that encourage national development. Key words: Literature, stylistics, national development.
Flavian-Obasi et al. (Tue,) studied this question.