Writing body in amos tutuola’s the palm-wine drinkard

In human societies, body plays a social role which authenticates its existence and gives it a true meaning. As such, body reveals as a cultural element which enables a social group to identify itself. Amos Tutuola represents body in his writing to highlight the intrinsic relationship between the visible world and the invisible one. In this view, the body of the main character, the wino, follows the way which society imposes it. Here, the impulses of the body force the protagonist to cross the insurmountable boundary which separates the two worlds. In African collective consciousness, a living cannot go to the world of the dead. Likewise, a dead cannot come back to normal life. Human body is then a receptacle for the soul in Tutuola’s imaginary universe.