Ableism Rapport Management: A Pragmatic Analysis of Ola Rotimi’s Hopes of the Living Dead

Abstract

This study aims to investigate the discourse of the leaders of persons with(out) disability as evidenced in the dramatic piece of Ola Rotimi to uncover the existing mechanism of their rapport management in their dialogic discourses. We argue that “disabled” leaders have a high rapport management tendency with their fellow individuals with physical impediments, while “able” leaders do not consider creating and managing rapport with “disabled” persons. Eight (8) dialogic interactions were purposively sampled from the literary piece for analysis. The study employed a qualitative method of data analysis. Adopting the rapport management model of Spencer-Oatey as the theoretical framework, the study revealed that the dialogic discourses of both leaders with (out) disability are laced with different rapport management strategies that either impede or strengthen their interpersonal relationships, and that rapport is either managed or mismanaged.