Literature as Resistance: Redefining Identity through Language and Mythopoeia

<p>This paper will examine how literature is a tool of resistance against dominant narratives and how Amos Tutuola uses myth retellings to create a distinct Yoruba cosmology amidst the Western imposition of culture and belief systems. The study will analyze the language used by Tutuola that opposes the Western linguistic system and how the English of the colonizers becomes a vessel to preserve Yoruba identity. The paper will specifically ask how mythical retellings and language were used by Amos Tutuola to reclaim the marginalized African voice during colonization. The research will evaluate cultural retrieval through close examinations of three texts - The Palm Wine Drinkard, My Life in the Bush of Ghosts, and The Brave African Huntress. The Palm Wine Drinkard delves into complex representations of Yoruba myths, keeping a fantastical, magical realistic tale on the surface. My Life in the Bush of Ghosts revolves around the plight of an African boy lost in the bushes of Africa while trying to flee from the slave merchants and captures the voice of resistance in the face of the dehumanizing effects of colonization. The Brave African Huntress presents a courageous figure who single-handedly saves her brothers from bondage. </p>