TIME AND VISION IN BEN OKRI’S THE FAMISHED ROAD

Abstract

This essay attempts to offer a reading of The Famished Road with a view to the issues often least touched upon in magic realist works. The idea is to provide a liberal humanistic reading of the novel. In this venture, I argue that ‘time’ as a major preoccupation of the novel explicitly and implicitly affects major characters. Entwined with ‘time’ is the concept of vision. The connection between these two is what this article will explore as well. The article will focus on the transformations that two major characters, that is, the spirit-child and his father undergo and will demonstrate how these changes are a function of temporality.