Performers at the National Conference on Folklore and Literature at the Women’s Christian College.
What happens when around 1600 languages and dialects are submerged into roughly 22 ‘official’ languages in India? It results in the loss of an intangible cultural heritage which resides in the minds of the people said Dr Deborah Thiagarajan, chairman and founder, Madras Craft Foundation. Speaking at a National Conference on Folklore and Literature at Women’s Christian College recently, she said if there is no recognition of the wisdom, abilities and skills embedded in folklore and folk traditions, our culture will be submerged and lost. The process has already begun with the aspiration of small, rural communities having to model their lifestyles along urban lines, she added.
Folklore is a ‘once lived reality’ said Dr Muthukumaraswamy, director, National Folklore Support Centre, adding to the theme. Literature engages the reader only with the text itself, written as it is by a ‘lonely author with an anonymous audience’, while folklore and performance engages the community. The audience participates, interjecting with their own critical comments or interpretations, hauling up the actors for forgetting parts of the narrative and becoming part of the narrative themselves as for instance, when the cattle they have driven home from work form part of the setting for a cattle fight on stage.
In a sharing of perspectives, theatre practitioner, activist and academician Dr Padma (Mangai) reiterated that classical forms had taken off from folk forms. She cautioned, however, against adopting a protective attitude towards folk culture and suggested a critical approach as folk tales come with a feudalistic agenda and a built in gender bias. “Take it, question it and make it your own,” she said.
Eric Miller, Director, World Storytelling Institute, and Sambamurthy, theatre practitioner and entrepreneur, shared their perspectives on the occasion. Students and delegates from city colleges and universities and also from Delhi, Hyderabad, Bangalore and Thiruvaroor presented papers on a wide spectrum of folklore and literature.
The finale of the conference, organised by the Department of English, was a slew of vibrant folk performances by professionals from Dakshinachitra, who set a reverberating tone with their thappattam and drew the participants into joining them in a lively rendition of folk dance.
source: http://www.newindianexpress.com / Home> Cities> Chennai / by Express News Service – Chennai / February 28th, 2013