Abstract:

History writing is one of the most fundamental issues of post-colonial work. With the dissolution of colonies belonging to the British Empire after World War II, the Western civilization's summer species - especially the novel - began to be used by authors living in ancient colonies as an effective means of reflecting their national and cultural identities. In the years following the declaration of national independence, the authors have tried to contribute to the process of building national identity by taking the works of pre-colonial history and cultural heritage. In these works, which are painted in order to prove their own cultures are equal to or superior to Western culture, the authors have mostly gone to the way of idealizing their pre-colonial national history. This disgraceful nationalist approach, which appeared in the early years of national independence, has left its place since the 1980s to a new concept of national identity, seeking reconciliation between the local culture and the cultures of the colonial states. The magical realistic type of writing has played a key role in helping writers living in ancient colonies express their national history and identities due to the ability to accommodate different concepts of history and reality together and, most importantly, their close relationship with myths, folkloric elements and speech. The aim of this study is to explore the role of the magic reality writing style and the 'abiku' myth of African culture in Ben Okri's novel "The Hungry Road" in the re-writing of Nigeria's history.

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