CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

Modern African Literature is believed by some critics to be a transition form spoken words to the written form of it, especially in relation to the  expression of African beliefs and world view.  Thus, except for the language issue which alienates  Modern African Literature from its root, the experiences expressed therein remain essentially African.  To ensure the maintenance of African identity However,  deliberate efforts are made by writers to reach  the grassroots by switching over to vernacular as a more towards revolutionizing the contemporary African Literature, while some only limit their zeal to a full exploration of African values.

          Furthermore, no definition of written literature can be said to be complete without a prior reference to its  origin in  whatever setting, be it, African or European.  The literature of a set of people does not emerge from a vacuum.  It is the fundamentals of a set of people that make up their written literature, whether these fundamentals are written or unwritten.  Therefore, it is erroneous to stress the written aspect of literature alone and ignore the oral aspect.  Whatever becomes written has been in existence in the unwritten form.  The general consensus is that, written literature  borrows some features form unwritten literature in terms of content and even style.

          It is this situation, that is the  deployment of oral forms in the writing of Modern African writers that have become of interest to this writer.  hence, in this project, we intend to study the features of oral literature that may be present in Wole Soyinka’s “The Beatification of Area Boy”.

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