PAULE MARSHALL’S PRAISESONG FOR THE WIDOW: GHOSTS AND AFRICAN MYTHOLOGY

Myth as a traditional tale bears an obscure relationship to the past that survives outside of a historical reality; nevertheless, it suggests a dynamic understanding of ancestral behaviours. The imaginative power of myth can make up for shortsightedness of historiography which tends to absolutise the events. African mythology and religion, rooted deep in the consciousness of all African people, provides a strong device for speaking out the erased past of their silenced ethnicities. A series of repeated appearances of some ancestral ghosts in Praisesong for the Widow (1983) reveals more than a simple ghost appearance; it represents the return of a generation of all enslaved Africans. The present paper focuses on the ghostly state of Paule Marshall’s Praisesong for the Widow, as one of the best examples of cultural haunting stories, and its profound significance to, generally, myth and, particularly, African mythology. The paper examines the main mythological implications and appearances of the novel are investigated through the lens of Spectral criticism aiming to illustrate the workings of myth and African mythology as a crucial plot device which helps the author to provide the space for effective recuperation of a lost past and the required alteration in the dominant historiography.

Keywords:

spectral criticism , cultural haunting