The Tragic Hero of the Modern Period—The African Concept

Abstract

There is an underlying cultural dimension in modern tragedy, in that the tragic hero differs from culture to culture in modern society. In the light of this, it is appropriate to point out that whereas the modern tragic hero in the Western culture is an anti-hero as portrayed in “The tragic hero of the modern period—The European Concept”, in cultures such as, in Asia and Africa, the tragic hero still maintains some traits of the Greek heroic figure. This paper therefore fulfils an identified need to study the concept of this period’s tragedy and shows the appendages of the traits of the Greek Classical tragic hero in the modern period of the African concept. The study provides extracts from Achebe’s Things fall Apart as the main text, Achebe’s Morning Yet on Creation Day, Achebe’s Arrow of God and Rotimi’s Kurunmi as supporting texts to present the African concept of the tragic hero.