This paper studies the oral contes of Black Africa and their modern transformations through an analysis of Araignée et Bosse by Marius Ano N’Guessan and Le Bœuf de l’Araignée by Bernard Dadié. It is believed that Araignée et Bosse was published by translating the oral stories in French, as they were. Le Bœuf de l’Araignée is a modernized adaptation of the same story, titled as N’Guessan’s Araignée et Bosse and published in French, and is in this respect, regarded as a creation based on an oral story. Focusing on the process of these works’ creation, this study analyzes their adapted elements, such as their background, descriptions of the characters’ psychology, the ways of life (communal life and individualism), and the values of life (social solidarity and individual desires), and looks at how they differ from the original by comparing Le Bœuf de l’Araignée with Araignée et Bosse.

Black Africa, Oral literature, N’Guessan, Dadié, Spider, Modern adaptation of oral tradition