African Figure's Journey as a Divine Trickster Character to the Political World of the Signifying Monkey

Subject Areas : Comparative Literature Studies

Maryam Jalali ¹ , Saeedeh Erfanrad ²

1 - Department of English, Taft Branch, Islamic Azad University, Taft, Iran
2 - Yazd Branch, Islamic Azad University, Yazd, Iran

Received: 2023-09-27 Accepted : 2024-08-13 Published : 2024-12-17

Keywords: Esu-Elegbara, a trickster figure, African Tradition, Henry Louis Gates, African Literature, divine character,

Abstract :

Esu-Elegbara is a significant trickster figure found in black oral narrative traditions and cultures. He acts as a mediator and messenger of the gods, interpreting their will to man and carrying the desires of man to the gods. Despite the horrors of slavery, this figure has survived and transformed in Western Black cultures into The Signifying Monkey, a political character. This study examines the journey of Esu-Elegbara, from a minor role to a major one, and its metamorphosis into The Signifying Monkey, a political figure in African-American literature. The research is a library-based descriptive qualitative study, which surveys the diachronic journey of Esu-Elegbara from the Western Coast of Africa to African-American Literature in the United States. Keywords: Esu-Elegbara, a trickster figure, African Tradition, Henry Louis Gates, African Literature, divine character

References:


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