PORTRAYAL OF THE WORLD OF THE DEAD IN DANTE’S DIVINE COMEDY AND AMOS TUTUOLA’S THE PALM-WINE DRINKARD

Abstract

Researchers have written about themes and characters in Dante’s The Divine Comedy and Tutuola’s The Palm-wine Drinkard but little or no comparative research has been done on these two texts. This study therefore seeks to examine and compare the portrayal of the world of the dead as a setting by Dante Alighieri and Amos Tutuola in their texts The Divine Comedy and The Palm Wine Drinkard respectively and how this setting influences their choice of characters and themes. The study will be based on three objectives: 1) To establish what influences Dante and Tutuola’s choice of setting as the world of the dead. 2) To determine whether their choice of setting affects their choice of characters. 3) To establish whether their themes are affected by their choice of setting. The following research questions will guide the study: 1) How do Dante and Tutuola’s religious, education and social background influence their choice of setting (world of the dead)? 2) How does the world of the dead as a setting influence Dante and Tutuola’s choice of characters? 3) How does this setting influence Dante and Tutuola’s themes in their selected works? The study will be library based, and will draw on textual analysis and interpretation of the texts. Data will further be analyzed and interpreted following the sociological and psychoanalytic theories of literary criticism. The sample will comprise two books The Divine comedy by Dante and The Palm-Wine Drinkard by Tutuola. The study will establish that Dante and Tutuola’s historical background, environment, religion and education background affect their choice of the world of the dead as the setting in their selected works. Dante’s choice is heavily influenced by Catholicism, his knowledge of Greek mythology and the political struggles of his time while Tutuola is heavily influenced by Yoruba mythology and Christianity. It will therefore be concluded that these findings are in agreement with the psychoanalytic theory and the sociological theory, which argue that a setting is a consequence of the author’s subconscious minds developed under their respective experiences like their education, that art has an important relationship with the society in which it is set and art is supposed to be a tool for social transformation, Dipio Dominic (1998).