Oral traditions and African literature reading Chinua Achebe-s arrow of God and Ngugi Wa Thiong-o- Matigari.pdf

The paper attempts to investigate the relevance of oral tradition in Chinua Achebe's Arrow of God and Ngugi wa Thiong'o's Matigari. Apart from increasing the available oral traditional texts, the study has attempted to demystify the erroneous conception about oral tradition. Although introductory, it is objectively informative, displaying the beauty of folk tradition used among African creative writers. The study touches on all basic levels of oral traditional analysis, and with particular emphasis on three of the numerous subtopics which deal with oral tradition: its nature, features and functions. The work explores the opinion and criticisms of critics about the supporter's texts. While some critics are full of praise of the texts for the importance they attach to oral tradition, other critics argue that texts which encompassed oral traditional elements are baseless to the social value. The paper concludes that African literature and/or culture is absolutely a committed one and should not be neglected: it should be regarded and be given adequate priority.<br>

本论文旨在探讨钦努阿·阿契贝（Chinua Achebe）的《神箭》（Arrow of God）与恩古吉·瓦·提安哥（Ngugi wa Thiong'o）的《马蒂加里》（Matigari）中口头传统（oral tradition）的关联性。本研究不仅扩充了现有口头传统文本的储备，更致力于破除学界对口头传统的错误认知。尽管本研究尚属初步探索，但其立论客观、内容详实，充分展现了非洲创意作家所运用的民间传统之美学价值。该研究覆盖了口头传统分析的全部基础维度，并特别聚焦于三大核心子主题：口头传统的本质、特征与功能。本研究同时探讨了评论界针对此类依托口头传统的创作文本的各类评价与批评之声：部分评论家因这类文本对口头传统的重视程度而给予高度赞誉，另一部分评论家则认为，融入口头传统元素的文本缺乏社会价值支撑。论文最终得出结论：非洲文学与（或）文化绝非无足轻重的存在，理应得到应有的重视与充分的优先考量。