| dc.description.abstract | It has been the practice of scholars such as Taban Lo
Liyong and Hans-egil Hauge to do a shoddy collection of oral
materials and ignore their literary potential. with the Gor
Mahia epic, the tendency has been to parade it as one of the
anthropological pieces adding on to the store of African
heritage expressed in 'folktales' (Hauge, 1974:89) or 'popular
culture' (Taban, 1972:iv).
This thesis aimed at correcting the above-mentioned
anomaly by diligently collecting and recording the Gor Mahia
epic and then giving it a critical appraisal. The objective
was subject the Gor Mahia epic to a critical analysis and
thereby establish its literary status.
The first step in this undertaking was to set up
theoretical and methodological procedures for collection and
recording of the narratives. The collection and recording of
these narratives has been scrupulous enough to fulfill the
first objective of this thesis.
The narrators' of the texts were ·found to have
deliberately employed various literary devices in order to put
across the intrinsic messages of the legend. Consequently,
the Gor Mahia epic is a work of art in which themes, style and
structure are fused. The thesis challenges other researchers
to record and critically analyse further not only the Gor
Mahia epic but also other heroic narratives whose literary
potential has been ignored | en |
