ORAL TRADITION ADVENTURE AND STORYTELLING: A FORMALIST ANALYSIS OF OSITADINMA’S TEETH OF A SNAIL

Abstract

Oral tradition as an important aspect of African culture plays a role in the upbringing and education of the youth. Cultural values, ethos and ethics of the people form a critical part of oral tradition. A people’s values and ways of life are transmitted from generations through storytelling, folktales, myths and legends, among other cultural provisions. Some of these are done orally, while other are recorded in texts and printed materials, example of which is Teeth of a Snail by Ositadinma Amakeze. It is a short adventure fiction and folk story published in 2014. The text explores certain cultural values that guide adolescents against certain deviant behaviours and delinquencies. Using the formalist approach and storytelling techniques, such as narrative, dialogue, exposition, and description, the study makes a literary analysis of the events and incidences in the novel in relation to deviant characters, Nkuri and Udene. The paper specifically highlights curiosity as the impetus in the major characters’ recklessness, and perilous undertakings. The use of rhetoric and internal structures such as proverbs, folktales, myths, paradox and other literary devices are formalist features are the tools of analysis that reveal the didactic nature of the narrative. The paper postulates that disobedience to the cultural ethics and norms may lead one into self-destruction.