Abstract:
The ogre narratives are common among many African communities. The Gῖkữyữ oral
narratives employ complexsymbolism of ogres and stylistic devices and the area has not been
researched on. This research therefore aimed at investigating the symbolism of ogres and the
stylistic devicesused in Gῖkữyữ ogre oral narratives. The objectives of the study were to look
at the symbolism of ogres in the Gῖkữyữ community as portrayed in the Gῖkữyữ oral
narratives, examining the characteristics of these narratives based on the stylistic devices and
their roles in the community.The research was guided by structuralism and post structural
theory. The proponents of the theory includes: Roman Jacobson Rene Wellek and later
influenced by Ferdinand de Saussure. The Post Structuralists are associated with Jacques
Derrida among others. Structuralists mainly look at the different parts that form the whole
structure. They argued that one symbol can have more than one meaning depending on the
social context. The Post-Structuralists emphasized on the role of the language use in
analyzing the social structure, meaning and their interpretations in terms of selfconsciousness
where language is taken as the main axis in giving both the real meaning and
the derived one. The data was collected in Nyandarua County. The Oral narratives were first
collected from the field fromkey informantswho were elderlyand had experiencein
narratingby Snowball sampling. The narratives were taperecordedusing a tape-recorder then
transcribed for analysis. A purposeful sample of five narratives whose main characters are the
ogre and those that were different from each other with and used various stylistic devices
were then chosen from the collected narratives. The data collected finally was analyzed
descriptively by studying the themes, character traits and symbols of ogres that they portray
in the Gῖkữyữ oral narratives. Thefindings of the study will be usefulto the students, teachers
and researchers of oral literature.They will also be useful in preserving oral narratives in
literature and therefore contribute towards understanding of the significance of the ogre oral
narratives.
