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Periodical article Periodical article Leiden University catalogue Leiden University catalogue WorldCat catalogue WorldCat
Title:Amos Tutuola: Oral Tradition and the 'Motif Index'
Author:Lindfors, BernthISNI
Year:1992
Periodical:Current Bibliography on African Affairs
Volume:24
Issue:3
Pages:229-249
Language:English
Geographic term:Nigeria
Subjects:oral traditions
literature
Literature, Mass Media and the Press
Peoples of Africa (Ethnic Groups)
About person:Amos Tutuola (1920-1997)ISNI
Abstract:Many talk about Amos Tutuola's debt to West African oral tradition but no one has attempted a systematic survey of precisely how much material this eccentric Nigerian storyteller has borrowed, stolen or transformed from indigenous oral narratives. The author aims to fill this gap in African literary folkloristics in some measure. The only research tools available were motif indices by S. Thompson (1955-1958) and by K. Clarke (1958). Using Thompson's definition of motif as 'something out of the ordinary, something of sufficiently striking character to become a part of tradition', the author managed to extract 299 distinct motifs from Tutuola's first and most famous book 'The palm-wine drinkard and his dead palm-wine tapster in the dead's town' (1953). Nearly 50 percent (143) of the total number of motifs were not listed in Thompson. Of the 156 motifs listed in Thompson, 40 were also listed in Clarke. Three motifs were listed in Clarke but not in Thompson. The conclusion is that the book was an extremely original work, owing less to folklore than most observers supposed. The main part of this article consists of the motif-index of 'The palm-wine drinkard', arranged according to the main motifs: mythological motifs, animals, tabu, magic, the dead, marvels, ogres, tests, the wise and the foolish, deceptions, ordaining the future, change and fate, rewards and punishments, captives and fugitives, unnatural cruelty, sex, religion, and miscellaneous groups of motifs. Notes, ref.
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