Structures, Irony, and Themes in Damilare Kuku's "Òdè-Pus Complex"

Damilare Kuku’s “Òdè-Pus Complex” explores the psychological and emotional struggles of Uchenna, a young man caught between two powerful relationships — with his possessive mother, Mrs. Umeh, and his girlfriend, Jide. The narrative presents a symbolic triangular structure, with Uchenna positioned at the apex and the two women at the base, dramatizing his internal conflict and desire for autonomy. Adopting a third-person narrative perspective, the story’s language functions on both denotative and connotative levels, unveiling layers of irony, repression, and desire. This study applies the principles of structuralism to examine the narrative architecture, emphasizing how binary oppositions — such as love versus control, freedom versus dependence, and mother versus lover — shape meaning in the text. The analysis reveals how irony mediates these oppositions, creating tension between affection and alienation. Through this lens, Kuku’s story becomes a psychological and cultural commentary on the complexities of maternal attachment, masculinity, and emotional maturity in postmodern African society. The study concludes that a structuralist reading exposes the deep relational structures that govern the text’s themes and contributes to ongoing discourse on gender, identity, and the family in contemporary African fiction.