ORATURE, ORALITY AND MAGICAL REALISM IN JUAN RULFO’S PEDRO PARAMO: A REPLICA OF THE NARRATIVE EXIGENCIES IN NGUGI’S DEVIL ON THE CROSS

Abstract

Juan Rulfo’s Pedro Paramo published in 1955 establishes the traditional voice that is unmistaken, and specifically tied to the origins of the people of Latin-America who are so described. Like Rulfo’s novel, Ngugi wa Thiong’o’s 1982 novel, Devil on the Cross features the gicaandi player and traditional narrator to illustrate narrative exigencies in Devil on the Cross while revealing the decimated Gikuyu tradition. Rulfo and Ngugi leverage on the basic orality of their societies by projecting stories which reflect the postcolonial reality that recreates their traditions, placing their works as products of interrelated cultures. Using the textual analysis research approach, the work attempts to interrogate the synergy which the works of Ngugi and Rulfo depict as they tell their postcolonial stories by employing the oral traditions associated with their origin. This authenticates the similarity in the experiences of two settings – Latin-America and Africa represented by the settings of the two works under study; irrespective of the interregnum. The employment of the magical realism enhances the narrative technique and accords the thematic content a more sublime depth only achievable through the eyes of the supernatural. Referencing other works, this study hopes to establish the similarity of the postcolonial experiences which the two works under study reveal irrespective of almost three decades of hiatus in between the two generational novels depicting two similar events. The genius of the two writers lie in their ability to relay their postcolonial stories using indigenous narrative technique which are similar despite their varied settings.