THE TRAGIC AND THE SUPERNATURAL IN ELECHI AMADI’S THE GREAT PONDS AND THE CONCUBINE.

THE TRAGIC AND THE SUPERNATURAL IN ELECHI AMADI’S THE GREAT PONDS AND THE CONCUBINE.

ABSTRACT

The tragic and the supernatural are key issues in African literature. The sense of the tragic is embedded in the belief that man is not happy by nature. The concept of the supernatural and the tragic have been explored by writers and critics of African literature from different perspectives. This study however looks at the tragic as a mode of experience. The influence of fatalism on the characters in the selected texts suggests that man is helpless before external powers that determine his destiny. The actions and inactions of the characters bring them to the fulfillment of their destinies. Amadi in the selected texts presents the supernatural as a force that regulates the activities of men within his fictional world. The researcher’s examination of concepts such as the quest myth, fatalism and determinism brings to the fore the relationship between the tragic and the supernatural.