We found a match
Your institution may have access to this item. Find your institution then sign in to continue.
- Title
From Oral Tradition to 'Folk Art.'
- Authors
Hauser, Beatrix
- Abstract
This article contributes to the scholarship on the politics of production and consumption of the arts in modern India as well as to relating issues of aesthetics and development. It describes the tradition of scroll painters--Patuas (pau.&tbdot;u&ydot;ā)--and the practice of storytelling in contemporary West Bengal, where a small number of picture showmen who follow this caste-based occupation can still be found. In this article the process by which this tradition was recognized as "folk art" is analyzed anda shift of genre from a primarily oral tradition to a primarily visual tradition (i.e., from the performance of scrolls to their selling as art products) is demonstrated. It is argued that "Patua artt" as it is perceived today, is a quite recent phenomenon, generated to a great extent by the urban intellectual elite of Calcutta.
- Subjects
WEST Bengal (India); INDIA; SCROLLS (Decorative arts); STORYTELLING; JUANG (Indic people); INDIC folk art
- Publication
Asian Folklore Studies, 2002, Vol 61, Issue 1, p105
- ISSN
0385-2342
- Publication type
Literary Criticism
- DOI
10.2307/1178679