ABSTRACT
The tragic and the supernatural are key issues in African
literature. The sense of the tragic is embedded in the belief that man is not
happy by nature. The concept of the supernatural and the tragic have been
explored by writers and critics of African literature from different
perspectives. This study however looks at the tragic as a mode of experience.
The influence of fatalism on the characters in the selected texts suggests that
man is helpless before external powers that determine his destiny. The actions
and inactions of the characters bring them to the fulfillment of their
destinies. Amadi in the selected texts presents the supernatural as a force
that regulates the activities of men within his fictional world. The
researcher’s examination of concepts such as the quest myth, fatalism and
determinism brings to the fore the relationship between the tragic and the
supernatural.
TABLE OF
CONTENTS
Title
Page
Abstract
Table
of Contents
CHAPTER ONE: BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
1.1
Introduction
1.2 Statement of Problem
1.3 Objectives of the Study
1.4 Significance of the Study
1.5 Scope of the Study
CHAPTER TWO: REVIEW OF RELATED
LITERATURE
CHAPTER THREE: RESEARCH METHODS
3.1 Theoretical Framework
3.2 Research Methodology
CHAPTER FOUR: THE TRAGIC AND THE
SUPERNATURAL IN THE SELECTED TEXTS
4.1 The Influence of the Supernatural in The
Concubine and The Great Ponds
4.2 The Tragic and the Supernatural in The
Concubine and The Great Ponds
CHAPTER FIVE: SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION
5.1
Summary
5.2
Conclusion
WORKS
CITED
CHAPTER ONE
1.1 GENERAL
INTRODUCTION
Tragedy and the tragic can
hardly be discussed as independent variables. A brief review of tragedy is
necessary to introduce the tragic concept. The tragic and the supernatural are
both recurring themes in African literature. Tragedy is used in the mundane
sense to refer to situations that induce fear and sympathy. In this regard, an
auto crash is referred to as tragedy thereby making tragedy a close synonym for
accident. This mundane conception of tragedy is responsible for loose
expressions such as human tragedies, domestic tragedies, highway tragedies etc
Tragedy in relation to
literature, involves actions that go beyond accidents and strange coincidence.
Aristotle in The Poetics presents tragedy as
an imitation of an action that is serious, complete, and of
a certain magnitude, in language embellished with each kind of artistic
ornament….with incidents arousing pity and fear, wherewith to accomplish its
catharsis of such emotions…(27).
Aristotle
goes further to state that: “tragedy is an imitation, not of men, but an action
and of life, and life consists in action, and its end is a mode of action not a
quality…” (27).
The
plot of the Aristotelian tragedy has two major parts: the reversal and
recognition, and “the scene of suffering” (32). Aristotle posits that:
M. H. Abrams
in A Glossary of Literary Terms on the other hand is of the view
that tragedy is “broadly applied to literary and especially
to dramatic representations of serious actions which eventuate in a disastrous
conclusion for the protagonist” (371). Tragedy as an experience of life
transcends the Greek and Roman views on tragedy as involving men of high social
standing whose fall from royalty and power induce sympathy from their loyal
subject. The tragic hero in contemporary literary productions is that character
whom the author chooses for the tragic experience social status
notwithstanding. The tragic however consists of all experiences that limit
human happiness.
Richard L. Rubens in
“Psychoanalysis and the Tragic Sense of Life” is of the view that:
The central, defining characteristic of the tragic sense of
life is its insistence on the balance between the striving for rationality on
the one hand, and the recognition of the underlying irrationality of existence
on the other (2).
Rubens’ opinion on the tragic
sense of life provides a functional definition of the tragic. This “insistence
on the balance between the striving for rationality on the one hand and the
recognition of the underlying irrationality of existence on the other” shapes
the scope of the experience of the tragic hero. It is this search for
rationality in a seemingly irrational situation that builds up the tragic myth.
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