Folklore as Discourse

Nineteen seminal papers on various aspects of Indian folklore written by eminent scholars are collected together here in a volume. Exploring the way folklore organizes itself in different societal contexts in India is the focus of the different scholars presented here. Divided into easy sections, this book organizes complex thoughts on Indian folklore in an accessible format useful for students, scholars and lay public. While Jawaharlal Handoo, Arupjyoti Saikia and Sadhana Naithani examine the relationship between folklore and the historical discourse, Peter Claus and K.M. Chandar analyze how folklore the discipline handles the problems presented by such social history of attitudes and perspectives. Venugopalan Nair, Kishore Bhattacharjee, Laltluangliana Khiangte, Pulikonda Subbachary, and Guru Rao Bapat as practitioners of the discipline describe the discourses of distinctive folklore genres such as festival, legends, myths and folk theatre. Chandan Kumar Sharma and Desmond Kharmawphlang enquire into the construction of identities aided by language and lore. While Lalita Handoo presents insights into the power and practices of the discourse of gender, Eric Miller writes on the politics of technology and culture involved in the public presentation of folklore. Nirmal Selvamony, Saugata Bhaduri and Raghavan Payyanad take discourse analysis to examine the workings of ideology, religion, and worldview whereas Bharathi Harishankar, and Theodore Baskaran take it to understand the print medium and cinema. This volume as a whole would prove to be an essential reading for anyone interested in Indian society and culture.