Why is the African road hungry?:An intertextual analysis of the road image in The Famished Road
This paper performs an attentive analysis on the magic famished"road"image in Ben Okri's best-known novel The Famished Road,which we believe has an inter-textual relationship both with road-related works by Wole Soyinka and the genesis story of The Bible.The title of the novel,derived from Soyinka's poetry,apparently indicates a textual inheritance from Soyinka to Okri.This inheritance is further proved by the magic realistic representation of Nigerian transportation situation and the inserted narrative of Yoruba road god in the novel.The originality of this novel lines in Okri's literary attempt to associate the road image with the miserable life of African people.Another significant feature of the novel is that Okri strives to tell a true African story within the grand narrative frame of The Bible.The Famished Road is in effect a flower planted in African soil but growing under the Western sun and rain.
Ben OkriThe Famished Roadthe road imageintertextuality
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