Dyadic Representation of Mythic Structures in Adichie's Americanah

This study isolates myth as one of the structural principles of literature. The mythic structures are perceived in dyadic figuration: the quest myth and the myth of the year god. The archetypal critical approach to the analysis of the characters in this study reveals that each character responds to a kind of cosmic phenomenon which has the capacity to produce in the observer flashes of instantaneous comprehensions. In Ifemelu, the observer is struck with the image of Aphrodite Pandemos; to Obinze, it is an unquenchable taste like that of Tantalus; and Aunty Uju is observed under the influence of the Fortune god. The manifestations of the dyadic myth explored in this project and the production of these flashes of insights clearly demonstrate the autonomy of Adichie's world, while revealing, at the same time, primal categories of thoughts, beliefs, behavioural patterns and practices which exist and predate even the period of the gods. These patterns and images are older than mankind, and they have been there from prehistoric times: they are found in art qua art.