Triangle of ritual performance in Elechi Amadi’s <i>The Concubine</i>

Ritual performance contributes significantly to the artistic power and aesthetic value of Elechi Amadi’s novel, The Concubine. This essay explores the narrative functions of ritual patterns to the plot, characters and themes of the novel. The textual analytic method exposes the researcher to profound underlying meanings associated with each ritual element. The reader-response theoretical framework opens the novel to fresh insight in order to unpack the various intricate significations attached to the ritual symbols embedded in the tapestry of the novel. It helps the research to treat ritual elements as narrative devices thus enhancing their interpretation and unveiling their literary, artistic, structural and aesthetic qualities. It is discovered from the textual analysis that ritual performance can be viewed from three angles. The essay concludes that ritual divination, ritual sacrifice and ritual fortification constitute the triangle of ritual performance and that they contribute to characterizing characters, initiating conflict, arousing suspense, enacting flashback and resolving conflicts. Ritual performance, from the above reasons, functions as narrative techniques in the novel.