Sharpening Characterization Through the Use of Proverb in African Literature
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.53103/cjlls.v1i3.22Keywords:
Characterization, Proverbs, Oral Tradition, Epic, African LiteratureAbstract
African oral literature offers valuable historical insight that present diversified perspectives of the past events and characters. Of all forms of this oral heritage, proverbs have special attributes and characteristics. The African writers have found in the sources a new enrichment of their writing; one of which is characterization. Characterization is the process by which the writer reveals the personality of a character. African proverb plays significant roles in the literary works of the writers who choose to blend their works with the touch of African oral tradition. Using two literary pieces, Wole Soyinka’s Death and the King’s Horseman and D.T. Tiane’s Sundiata: an Epic of Old Mali, this paper addresses the significance of proverb, as an essential form of African oral heritage, in sharpening characterization.
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