Incorporation of Proverbs in Literature

Abstract

This study analyses the incorporation of proverbs in Flora Nwapa’s Efuru and Elechi Amadi‘s The Concubine and The Great Ponds. The validity of the proverbs used in the novels was proved after being subjected to Richard Dorson’s criteria of biographical evidence, internal evidence and corroborative evidence to ensure that they were real orallore. The criteria assures us that folk material found in the novels came directly from the authors’ personal exposure to actual folk tradition which was established because they passed the three principal kinds of evidence.