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Artifice of the Spider ‘Kacou Ananzè’ in The Black Cloth (Le Pagne Noir) by Bernard Dadié - Black African Morality and Satire

  • Cross-Cultural Studies
  • 2018, 52(), pp.195-222
  • DOI : 10.21049/ccs.2018.52..195
  • Publisher : Center for Cross Culture Studies
  • Research Area : Humanities > Literature
  • Received : August 10, 2018
  • Accepted : September 3, 2018
  • Published : September 30, 2018

YU Jai-Myong 1

1경희대학교

Accredited

ABSTRACT

Bernard Dadié expresses virtue, justice, and goodness by mixing reality and fiction through the life of the spider Kacou Ananzè in The Black Cloth (le Pagne noir). In Black Africa folktale, especially Côte d'Ivoire, virtue, justice, and goodness are important factors. The spider's life is full of imagination and tricks that reveal a variety of lessons: i) material abundance and frustration in the ‘Spider and the Tortoise’, ii) an autistic life that refuses to separate from the mother in the ‘Spider's Hump’, iii) leaving a trace of violating the taboo on the sheep in the ‘Spider's Ox’, iv) the failure of a ploy by hurting others to satisfy individual desire in ‘The Dowry’. These diverse stories enable us to understand human characteristics and imperfections by questioning customs of society and value of customs, reinterpreting folktale, and clarifying instructional intentions.

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