IGNOU MEG-16 Block-3 Folk Literature : Sources, Characteristics, Classifications and Functions Notes
MEG-16 Block-3 Folk Literature : Sources, Characteristics, Classifications and Functions
UNIT 8 FOLK NARRATIVE POEMS AND Folk Songs FOLK SONGS
Narrative poetry is a form of poetry that tells a story, often making use of the voices of a narrator and characters as well, and the entire story is usually written in metred verse. Narrative poems usually do not follow rhythmic patterns. The poems that make up this genre may be short or long, and the story it relates to may be complex in nature. It is usually dramatic, with objectives, diverse characters, and metre. Narrative poems include ballads, epics, lays and idylls. The focus of narrative poetry is often the pros and cons of life
Folk narrative poems are formed and transmitted from the perspective of time and space and are passed on from generation to generation. Folk narrative poems are an essential part of the social and cultural life of India.
BENGALI FOLK POETRY
Bengali is an Indo-Aryan language possessing a history and tradition of many centuries, and has a rich tradition of folklore and folk literature.
folk literature or oral tradition that consists of rhyming verse, usually recited or sung these include:
a) Short verses with lines that almost invariably rhyme;
b) A basis in sound, sometimes with a musical setting;
c) A structure with, generally, no logical idea, story, or continuity of event, but composed rather of a series of images;
d) Composition in simple meter and language;
e) Marked by nonsense, fantasy, absurdity, impossibility, etc. – most are free from didacticism and idealism.
PUNJABI FOLK POETRY
Punjab, Land of Five Rivers, (Panj is five, and ab means water) now lies divided between Pakistan and India. They believe that folk poetry is essentially collective and anonymous. People compose spontaneously while involved in their ordinary daily activities. It is primarily a verbal art. Those poems touch all aspects of life: love, hate, birth, death, marriage, murder, infidelity, war, famine, theft, rain, splendor, poverty.
Folk poetry openly portrays human conditions. It does not camouflage emotions. It reveals the bare truth which sometimes comes as a shock. Punjabi folk poetry has many meters, many variations, but the most popular is a two-line short poetical form, the tappa.
UNIT 9 MYTHS, LEGENDS AND TALES
Folklore can be described as traditional art, literature, knowledge and practices that are passed on in large part through oral communication and example. The information thus transmitted expresses the shared ideas and values of a particular group. These stories include legends, myths and folktales.
FOLKTALES
A folktale is “a poetic text that carries some of its cultural contexts within it; it is also a travelling metaphor that finds new meaning with new telling”
a folktale goes on changing from teller to teller; the structure of the tale may remain constant while all the cultural details change; parts of different tales are combined to make a new tale which expresses a new aesthetic and moral form characteristic of the culture.
When the same tale is told again in a different time or place, it may come to say fresh and appropriate things, often without any change in the story line.
folktales are different from fables because they feature people as their main characters, but often with a twist.
Schossberger opines that there are three principal factors essential to folktale:
They are, “Traditional, communicational contribution of the past bearers of the tradition, the present storytelling community, the narrator”
The traditional folktale which enters the life of a community at a given moment thus acts as a model.
It does not have an author; the folk community – or, as Anikin calls it, it is the chain of “collective authorship” that produces it.
Kinds of Folktales:
Classical folklores and tales
fairy tales,
tall tales,
trickster tales,
Myths
Legends.
Special ritual tales
Male-centred, female-centred, tales about families, tales about fate, death, gods, demons, ghosts and humorous tales or tales about a jester or clever person, tales about animals and stories about stories, all come under the umbrella term folktales.
MYTHS
Myth, derived from the Greek word ‘muthos’, means anything uttered by word of mouth. Myths are living social events, intelligible only in the context of real humans in real places involved in social interactions. They are commonly described as stories. Myth is defined as a story that explains or justifies and prolongs existing social and geographical boundaries. Myth is a story or an idea that is believed by many people, when something is believed by many people it becomes a part in the cultural life of those people.
A myth is a traditional story, which may describe the origins of the world and /or of a people.
A myth is an attempt to explain mysteries, supernatural events and cultural traditions.
The purpose of myths is to “account for the origins of something, explain aspects of the natural world, or delineate the psychology, customs, or ideals of society”
myth today is not an imaginary tale but a real life experience of the primordial society”
The typical fairy tale opens with “once upon a time”, the typical myth begins with “in the beginning”
LEGEND:
The word derives in Middle English from the old French “legend”, from Medieval Latin “legenda” i.e. “things to be read” and from Latin “legere”, meaning “read”. legends is “a story from the past that is believed by many people but cannot be proved to be true”
A myth is a traditional tale handed down from earlier times and believed to have an historical basis. A legend, on other hand is a story which is told as if it were a historical event, rather than as an explanation for something or a symbolic narrative. The legend may or may not be an elaborated version of a historical event.
Myths answer questions about how the natural world works, and are set in a time long-ago, before history was written. Legends are about people and their actions or deeds.
4 Categories of legends:
aetiological and eschatological legends,
historical legends and legends of history of civilisation,
supernatural beings and forces/mythic legends and
religious legends or myths of gods and heroes
Since a commonly accepted system of legend classification does not exist, the legends are arranged under four general headings:
Supernatural and religious legends,
Personal legends,
Place legends and
Modern legends.
UNIT 10 PROVERBS, RIDDLES AND SPEECH
Protest can be of two kinds: open and covert.
Open protest can take the form of clearly or openly voiced dissent or gestures of protest.
Covert protest can exist in various hues. Lamentation, subversive laughter and ridicule can be some expressions of covert protest
Folk Ballads and Folk Songs
Folk ballads on heroes of particular regions and communities bestow a mythical status on folk-heroes who overthrew powerful rulers, both Indian overlords and colonial masters and their representatives.
Folk ballads have been greatly effective for articulating as well as spreading protest at various junctures of history
Revolts, Insurrections and Folk Forms
Birsa Munda
Santhal
Lavani in Maharashtra,
Alha in Uttar Pradesh,
Gee-gee in Karnataka,
Villu Pattu in Tamil Nadu.
Jâtrâ,
The indigo revolt
Kabigân style. This style was replete with the simple language-idioms and melodies of folksong. How effective his protest was can be guessed by the very fact that the British had to stop his performance, arrest him, and imprison him.
Rani Laxmi Bai
Folk Cults, Bhakti and Protest
The Bâul songs prevalent among the outcast and poor communities present a remarkable defiance of the Hindu and Muslim religious establishments. Their emphasis on ‘manush’ or the individual is itself a protest against the authority and teaching of the mainstream religious establishment.
The Satnampanth under preceptor, Guru Ghasidas rejected caste division within the community. They questioned the caste system but at the same time upheld the practices of purity and pollution which were flaunted by the upper caste as a mark of their superiority. Satnampanth rejected temples and abolished the worship of village gods and goddesses for its followers. According to the myth “Satnampurush had asked Ghasidas to chase out the gods and goddesses from their houses”
WOMEN’S PROTEST AGAINST PATRIARCHAL AUTHORITY
he Muslim community included a form called ‘kâp’. Kâp or ‘Alkâp’, a form of burlesque performed in accompaniment to verse or music, was in vogue among the folk. It is played by women making fun of the male society and institutions. Some women dress up as men with beards made of jute. Wearing shirt-trousers or dhoti-lungis and painting their faces, some carry spades and cane baskets on their shoulders. By means of dance, song and mimicry they make fun of the quarrels among men and the dispensing of rural justice by men among other male-oriented activities.
FESTIVALS AND FOLK EXPRESSIONS OF PROTEST
Gambhira, Chou, Jhumur, Haichao, Bihu etc.
UNIT - 11 ARCHIVING AND Speech DOCUMENTATION
Cultural properties can be broadly divided in two groups, tangible and intangible.
A brief note of Tangible and Intangible cultural properties:
• Tangible: a property or thing that is perceptible by touch, such as
1) Buildings, pictures, sculpture, applied art, calligraphic works, and other items of great historical or artistic value to our nation.
2) Archeological specimens and other historical materials of great scientific or academic value.
• Intangible: Property which does not have any physical presence such as dramatic arts, music, folk performing art, textiles, costumes, applied arts technology and other cultural assets of an intangible nature which are of great historical or artistic value.
Conservation of all kind of material/art objects/sound recording are done under three main headings:
(1) Conservation of Museum object
(2) Conservation of Library materials
(3) Conservation of Archival materials.
Museums collect and care for objects of scientific, artistic, or historical importance and make them available for public viewing through exhibits that may be permanent or temporary.
Conservation includes continuous and protective care of the objects, setting of a place, maintenance such as preservation, restoration, reconstruction etc.
Definition of Archives:
records become archival as soon as they are created or received. Although archives are records, but not all records are archives. The records are selected for an archive because they have permanent value, either as evidence of transactions, or because of the information they contain about people, places, and things. The decision of selecting records for archives is taken by the archivists. The term “archive” has been derived from the Greek word “ archeion”. Etymologically, “archeion” has its origin in the word “arch” which refers to the magisterial residence, then the public office where Government records are kept. Historical manuscripts, isolated letters of ancient rulers, copper plates, stone
CHARACTERISTICS OF ARCHIVES
1) The archives of a particular institution or organization reflect the policies, functions and transactions of that institution alone and nothing else.
2) The distinctive feature of the archives is their official character, being the products or by-products of transactions of certain organizations or institutions having legal efforts. From this the second principle of archival administration that the archives must remain in the unbroken custody of the creator or his legitimate successor for their validity in the court of law was derived.
3) The archive is unique, each record was created in single copy for a specific purpose.
4) The authenticity of archives, refers to the underlying fact that the archives are not collected, in the usual sense of the term, by the creating institution or organization; rather they grow naturally out of their activities and operation.
The difference between archives and other record keeping organizations/institutions is that the latter does not have the above mentioned characteristics.
ROLE OF ARCHIVES
• to safeguard the national, regional, traditional culture of the society;
• to spread awareness among the people to respect and value their culture and also changes happening in the society.
• making people to think about their past and its related history; and
• preserving important recorded documents for future reference.
FUNCTIONS OF ARCHIVES
Acquisition Policy:
a) Policies of institutional archives usually attempt to ensure adequate and complete documentation of the institution, its functions, and its activities. Therefore, the policy identifies priority subjects for acquisition and the types of materials most likely to provide important information about the institution.
b) Specify the administrative units that are most likely to create essential documentation.
c) Defining categories of personal and family papers and other non-institutional collections.
d) Defining acquisitions in relationship to the holdings of other archival material. Many similar institutions are concerned with documentation of similar subjects and serve the needs of the same researchers. Because duplicate documentation is of little value to these scholars and absorbs valuable archival resources.
e) Institution can cooperatively choose areas of specialization or may agree that records or papers should be placed in institutions already holding relevant related documentation.
Appraisal
the incoming material considered must be appraised to determine, firstly, whether the collection as a whole is worth keeping, and second, which items within it are permanently valuable. The preference of decision for preserving collections depends upon the current historical and cultural values, and the intellectual and conceptual frameworks of those conducting the appraisal.
Documentation
The documentation process includes the identification of items, storage location, retrieval, presentation and circulation for the information of users.
Preservation
The goal of preservation is to assure that records in archival custody survive for an indefinite period of time.
Using Archives
Archival collection exists to be used, but the understanding of its appropriate use varies from institution to institution in line with their missions.
ARCHIVAL ETHICS
Archival ethics can be defined as:
• A system of moral principles;
• The rules of conduct recognized in respect to a particular group, culture, class of human action, etc.;
• Moral principles as of an individual or that branch of philosophy dealing with values relating to the right or wrong of certain actions and the goodness and bad deeds of the motives and ends of such actions.
ORGANIZATION OF ARCHIVES
Archives are divided in to five main categories according to organization they cater:
1) Academic archives: archives created to preserve these archives are found in colleges, universities or any other academic institution.
2) Business archives: archives located in institutions, which are owned by a private business house. The corporate archives maintain historic documents and items related to the history of their companies. Example: World of Coca-Cola, Levi Strauss & Co, Motorola Heritage Services and Archives.
3) Government archives: these archives include those institutions run on a local and state level as well as those by the central government.
4) Non-profit archives: these archives include archives for non-profit businesses such as hospitals and the repositories with the foundations. Non-profit archives are usually set up with private funds from donors to preserve the papers and history of specific persons or places.
5) Special archives: these archives include tribal archives, folklore archives, archives within museums and archives that exist the papers of private individuals. (www.wikipedia.org)
SOUND ARCHIVES
Sound archives are a place where audio visual recordings are stored for the purpose of both preservation and use. Following are the types of sound archives:
• National sound archives (the central collecting agency in a country, sometimes independent, sometimes part of a bigger institution)
• Gramophone record libraries (important above all for music, acoustic “ libraries”)
• Archives of radio and television stations
• Sound departments in scientific research institutions
• Central locations for sound recording (audio-visual) media in schools and adult education
Division of Work in the Sound Archives
Collection: sound recordings are collected mainly in two ways
(1) Passive: the published recordings of different varieties, which are available in the open market and copies of broadcast footage, are collected for archival preservation.
(2) Active: unpublished recording material of individual research or institutional projects, which needs special care to have very well thought-out procedure for active sound documentation. Documentation:
Cataloguing: The purpose of catalogue is to provide systematic information on the items contained in a collection in sufficient detail to enable those who have to administer that collection and those who wish to use the items for their work as efficiently as possible. cataloguing may be considered under three heading:
-accessioning,
indexing and
labeling.
Preservation: the aim of any sound archive is to preserve its collections into the indefinite future. preservation principles are:
1) keep storage area dust and insect free
2) keep temperature and humidity stable
3) keep material away from light
4) handle only when necessary
5) store in a secure vault to protect from theft, loss, or accidental misuse
6) develop an emergency plan for natural disasters, such as flood or fire
7) keeping multiple copies of a document is an important preservation principle.
COPYRIGHTS: LEGAL AND ETHICAL ISSUES
terms and conditions between donor and archives, related to:
1) the donor’s access to and use of the collection;
2) restriction on access of other to certain materials in a collection, usually for a specific period of time, to protect privacy of the creator;
3) intellectual ownership of the records, including copyright, and which remains with the creator of the records unless those rights are explicitly given over to the archival repository.
Copyright for commercially published sound recordings follows two separate rules:
1) the right of the author (s) of the recorded work like composer, lyricist, arranger, etc. These rights are often controlled by publishers and/or a copyright organization.
2) the right of the performer and the record company, usually controlled by the latter and/or a performing rights organization.
Access and dissemination:
(a) Preparing manual for access policies
(b) Providing archival materials to scholars on standard terms of access. (c) If necessary, charging fees from the user.
(d) Providing security and physical protection of archival holding
(e) Advertising archival holding and services
(f) Restrictions on access and use.
Technology:
the recording and reproduction equipment must be regularly and professionally maintained.
Archival storage:
(1) storage rooms must be kept at constant temperature (20C+/-2) and humidity (50 -60%);
(2) Apart from these, material must be protected from stray magnetic fields (electric circuits, lightning conductors etc.,
(3) they must be dust free
(4) tapes and discs must be in chemically insert covers, materials of which the recording media are made must be as stable as possible;
(5) discs must be stored vertically or suspended in vertical files. Special care must be taken when original recording media are used and working copies should be made for each recording.
Most of the leading sound archives of the world follow a standard rule provided by the International Association of Sound and Audio visual Archives (IASA). established in 1969 in Amsterdam to function as a medium for international co-operation between archives that preserve recorded sound and audiovisual documents. IASA has over 400 hundred members from more than 60 countries
Music, History, Literature, Folklore and Ethnography, Theatre, Oral history, Bio-acoustics, Environment, Medicine, technology, Linguistics and dialects recordings, as well as for forensic purposes.
. Acquisition and exchange
• Documentation and metadata
• Resources discovery and access
• Copyright and ethics
• Preservation and conservation
• research, dissemination, and publication
• Digitization of media content
SOME OF ARCHIVES IN INDIA: CASE STUDIES
The National Archives of India:
It was set up in March 1891 in Calcutta (Kolkata) as the Imperial Record Department and subsequent to the transfer of the National Capital from Kolkata to New Delhi in 1911, it was shifted to its present building in 1926.
The main function of National Archives of India and State Government’s Archives are to collect, preserve and organize government’s records and other materials of historical importance.
National Film Archive of India (NFAI):
NFAI was established in February 1964, as a media unit of the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting. Its objective is to acquire, preserve and restore the rich heritage of National Cinema, and the cream of international cinema.
3 Archives of Research Centre for Ethnomusicology (ARCE)
The Archives and Research for Ethnomusicology (ARCE) was established in 1982 by the American Institute of Indian Studies (AIIS), at Gurgaon, Haryana, consortium of American Universities with a strong interest in South Asian Studies. The primary objective of this archive was to provide a centre in India where collections of Indian music and oral traditions could be centralized and made available, and to stimulate the study of ethnomusicology in India.
LEGAL AND ETHICAL ISSUES
Following are the subject matters of traditional cultural expression:
1) verbal expressions, such as folktales, folk poetry, riddles, jokes, words, symbol and indication;
2) musical expressions, such as folk songs and instrumental music;
3) expression by action, such as folk dances, plays and artistic forms or rituals; whether or not reduced to a material form; and
4) tangible expression, such as:
– production of art, in particular, drawings, painting, carvings, sculptures, pottery, terracotta, mosaic, woodwork, metal ware, jewelry, basket weaving, needlework, textiles, carpets, costumes,
– crafts,
– musical instruments,
– architectural forms.
INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS (IPR)
WIPO is an international organization dedicated to promoting creativity and innovation by ensuring that the rights of creators and owners of intellectual property are protected worldwide, and that inventors and authors are recognized and rewarded for their ingenuity.
The convention of establishing the World Intellectual Property Organization (1967) gives the following list of subject matters protected by intellectual property rights:
• Literary, artistic and scientific works
• Performances of performing artists, phonograms, and broadcasts;
• Invention in all fields of human endeavor
• Scientific discoveries
• Industrial designs
• Trademarks, service marks, and commercial names and designations
• Protection against unfair competition
• All other rights resulting from intellectual activity in the industrial, scientific, literary or artistic fields
Generally all countries have two types of intellectual properties and they are:
a) to give statutory expression to the moral and economic rights of creators in their creations and to the rights of the public in accessing those creations.
b) to promote creativity, and the dissemination and application of its result, and to encourage fair trade, which would contribute to economic and social development.
What is Copyright Law?
Copyright Law protects the rights of intellectual creation with the respect to their original works. It is applicable to all types of literary and artistic works and will be protected as long as these are original expressions of an idea.
1) literary works
2) musical works, including all types of accompanying words
3) dramatic works, including all types of accompanying words
4) pantomimes and choreographic works
5) painting, graphic, and sculptural works
6) motion pictures and other audiovisual works
7) sound recordings
Laws for Protection of Folklore/Traditional Cultural Expression in India:
The following acts are taken from “Performer’s right” chapter VIII, section 38.
1) Where any performer appears or engages in any performances, he shall have a special right to be known as the “ performers right” in relation to such performance
2) The performer’s right shall subsist until twenty-five years from the beginning of the calendar year next following the year in which the performance is made. 3
) During the continuance of a performer’s right in relation to any performance, any person, who, without the consent of the performer, does any of the following acts in respect of the performance or any substantial part thereof, namely:
a) makes a sound recording or visual recordings of the performance; or
b) reproduces a sound recording or visual recording of the performance or any substantial part thereof, namely
• made without the performer’ consent
• made for purposes different from those for which the performer gave his consent, or
• made for purposes different from those referred to in section 39
c) broadcasts the performance expect where the broadcast is made from a sound recording or visual recording other than one made in accordance with section 39, or is a re-broadcast by the same broadcasting organization of an earlier broadcast which did not infringe the performer’s right; or
d) Communicates the performance to the public otherwise than by broadcast, except where such communication to the public is made from a recording or a visual recording or a broadcast, shall, subject to the provision of Section 39, be deemed to have infringed the performer’s right.
4) Once a performer has consented to the incorporation of his performance in cinematograph film, the provision of above mentioned sub-section (1), (2) and (3) shall have no further application to such performance. Section 39 deals with certain fair use provisions in relation to performer’s rights and the right of broadcasting organization, like private use, and the reporting of current events.
Section 39
(1): No broadcast reproduction right or performer’s right shall be deemed to be infringed by
-(a) the making of any sound recording or visual recording for the private use of the person making such recording, or solely for purposes of bona fide teaching or research; or
(b) the use, consistent with fair dealing, of excerpts of a performance or of a broadcast in the reporting of current events or for bona fide review, teaching or research; or
(c) such order acts, with any necessary adaptations and modifications, which do not constitute infringement of copyright
Commercial Exploration of Folklore/Traditional Cultural Expressions in India:
there is no provision to protect expressions of folklore/ Traditional cultural expressions in the intellectual property laws or in any other legislation.
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Unit-12 Adaptation and Interpretation of Folk Literature in Modern Times
What is ‘Adaptation’?
It is a trans-positional process, i.e. casting a specific genre into another generic mode – an act of revision in itself. This trans-coding can involve a shift of medium (a novel to film) or genre (an epic to a novel) or a change of frame and context, for example, the storyteller tells the same story but with a different fragrance. The word ‘adapt’, has its origin from the Latin word ‘adaptare’, which means ‘to make fit’.
Adaptation and Interpretation of Neel Kamal and Lal Kamal in this Animated Version
Adaptation and Interpretation of the Girish Karnad’s Nagamandala
In Indian folklore, a story lives inside the teller, literally, physically inside. And it is his or her duty to pass it on. If the teller fails to pass on this story to some listener, the story will take its revenge and she (it is almost certainly likely to be a woman) will suffer punishment.
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