Reading Notes
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How The Wives Restored Their Husband To Life |
| (women of the Congo, 1885) . . . |
This story was really intriguing because it reminded me of one of the stories I read earlier in the semester, I believe it was one of the Twenty Two Goblins riddles. I also appreciated how each woman's name was foreshadowing in what their role would be in the story. It makes me want to utilize this technique in one of my storybook updates or in a later retelling.
How Gazelle Got Married
Funnily enough, the same thematic framework in this story reminded me of "How the Lizard Nods Its Head Up and Down" from the West African (Ghana) stories. This seems to be a well popular lesson in African culture, it is interesting to compare what is emphasized in both pieces. This story also made me laugh because the forgetfulness of both the dog and Nsassi, it could be fun to play with in a retelling.
The Vanishing Wife
A charming part of this story was how Buite, although he would hate to cut off the fishes' heads, always ran after the wife's boys to make sure the deed was done before they reached the beautiful house. It was as if he already had sensed that this task was the one thing that kept the oasis alive. It also made me think more in terms of when you have got something to prove, it seems as though when you are trying so hard to impress someone you, like Buite, end up doing worse because of it.
Another Vanishing Wife
Another Vanishing Wife
Following the trend of these stories reminding me of other stories, this one, while many parallels were noticed between this and the last reading, it mostly reminded me of Cupid and Psyche. How Mavungu went to see and entertain his wicked family was almost mirrored to when Psyche's sisters came to visit Psyche in her palace in heaven. Trusting your family, only to be betrayed by them is a really interesting idea.
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All reading notes are based off of stories from Notes on the Folklore of the Fjort by Richard Edward Dennett (1898).
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