Abstract
Starting from Carl Jung’s collective unconscious nature of all thoughts down to Northrop’s postulations concerning significance and narrative affiliated to the literary field, many scholars have overseen the study of many myths with origin from diverse cultures and tradition with those from the Greek cosmology taking prominence. The myth of Sisyphus is one of such mythical configuration. It has its origin traceable to the Greek tradition and has been overtly applied to literary works of a sombre cast. Although the Sisyphean figure is prominent for the exhibitions of cyclical struggles, failures and living a perpetual absurdist life (as will be shown in this essay) there is a way that he is discovered to survive and, consequently, becoming victorious over his fate which makes his suffering less tragic. This is what is found to be the underlying nature of Negative Capability which has been viewed to be the solution for survival needed by the absurdist man. It is with recourse to this that this essay studies the nature of Ahmed Dantala, the protagonist of Elnathan John’s Born on a Tuesday, as a Sisyphean figure who lives above his tragedy with cheerfulness by unconsciously exhibiting this Negative Capability as propounded by John Keats.
Keywords: Myth of Sisyphus, Negative Capability, John Keats, Albert Camus, Absurdity, Northrop Frye, Existentialism
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Idoko, Juliet Ebere is a graduate of the Department of English and Literary Studies at the University of Nigeria Nsukka. She is a Creative and Critical Writer, and the Critical Writing Editor of The Muse no. 48 Journal.