2018/01/02 by Dokubo Melford Goodhead · 1 citation
Arts and Humanities · Psychology · Social Sciences · #Aesthetics #Anthropology #Art #Cultural Identity and Representation #Gender studies #Girl #History #Literature #Media, Gender, and Advertising #Narrative #Normative #Philosophy #Postcolonial and Cultural Literary Studies #Psychology #Sociology #Storytelling #Theology #Transcendence (philosophy)
paper · doi:10.1080/0015587x.2017.1397414
openalex publication_date 2018/01/02 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/29
Africa’s oral storytelling tradition holds riches that are still largely untapped. A comparative reading of Amos Tutuola’s ‘The Complete Gentleman’, in his The Palm-Wine Drinkard, and Ama Ata Aidoo’s play Anowa offers clues on how to explore this heritage for the contemporary world. Both writers have adapted the tale of the headstrong/disobedient girl, who refuses all suitors from her own people, only to marry a monstrous stranger. The two authors’ adaptations of this widespread tale from sub-Saharan Africa offer clues both to the immense possibilities of the African folktale heritage and transcendence of once normative biases such as the fear of the stranger and gender inequality.