The Compound House In Ghanaian Film And Fiction

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2022-09

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University Of Ghana

Abstract

The compound house is one of the most popular urban and traditional types of housing in Ghana. The house is a prominent setting in many locally produced films in Ghana. However, due to its rich features, other literary texts have adopted it to tell their stories. This essay will be spatial analysis of the house and its representation in Amma Darko’s Faceless, Samuel Nyamekye’s Asoreba, and Paul Gee’s Boasiako. The compound house has a memorable presence in the two films and novels. Faceless, a novel, addresses the social issues of poverty, streetism, bad parenting, rape, and defilement. Asoreba is concerned with domestic violence, and Boasiako is woven around spiritual issues bedeviling an extended family. The three texts have the compound house as the main set. The study will focus on the different roles it plays in contributing to the lives of the characters and the development of the plot. By doing an in-depth analysis, I argue that beyond its functions as a shelter, it is a Bakhtinian chronotope that takes center stage in narratives while being responsible for the security and memories of its inhabitants. Thus, by using Giddens’ ontological security theory and Bachelard’s topoanalysis to read the house, the research will delve into the connection between physical spaces and the psychology of its inhabitants, bringing out psycho-social issues in the texts. These two concepts have an intrinsic relationship with the house chronotope that automatically pops up. Keywords: compound house, chronotope, ontological security, topoanalysis, Kumawood.

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MPhil. English

Keywords

Ghanaian Film, Fiction, Compound House

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