Representation of the Ethiopian Orthodox Tewahido Church (EOTC) in Fikir eske Mekabir, an Amharic novel: Religious elites in focus

Representation is crucial in literature as it allows characters, events, and ideas to interplay harmoniously, forming a cohesive narrative. Without effective representation, the text’s core ideologies and intended meanings risk becoming ambiguous or diminished. This paper aimed to examine the representation of EOTC in the Amharic novel, Fiker eske Mekabir. EOTC is one of the influential religious institutions that contributed for Ethiopian culture, history, education, civilization and liberty of the state. People, especially, the elites are important bodies for a given mission and goals to be attained or failed. It is clear that fictional works are ‘of the people, by the people, and for the people’. Thus, studying representation of characters and its implication to the church in fiction is a significant aspect of literary analysis. To do this, the theory of hermeneutics, especially H.G. Gadamar’s concepts of text, context and contextualization are applied. The novel is appropriate because many of the characters are from the EOTC elites. As Haddis, the author, was a socio–political critic, from his need for improvement, many of the religious elites are portrayed negatively relative to the virtuous ones. And those good ones incorporated as antagonist to the flaw culture and characters, this in turn implies that there are many expected from the church to consider regarding its elites.