The Blend of Mythology and Current Issues in Dr. Chandrashekara Kambara’s Selected Plays

Page: 09-12

Dayananda Sagar G. S. (Department of English, Government College for Women (Autonomous), Mandya, Karnataka)

Folk literature, Orature or Oral literature is a genre of literature that is spoken or sung as opposed to that which is written. There is no standard definition, as anthropologists have used varying descriptions for oral literature or folk literature. A broad conceptualization refers to it as literature characterized by oral transmission and the absence of any fixed form. It includes the stories, legends, and history passed through generations in a spoken form. The term folk drama indicates non-commercial and tradition based rural theater. Folk drama is a composite art form of dance, music and dialogue with deep roots in local identity and native culture. Instead of a written script, folk drama depends on the performer’s memory and innovative capacity. Here music gets preference over dialogue. Simply it can be said that drama created for folk life and orally transmitted from generation to generation is generally termed as folk drama. History of dance, drama and music reveal that these are as old as human civilization. In the initial period of human civilization, before man had begun to speak, they used various gestures (dance, for instance) as a medium of their expression of inner feelings. With the passage of time, they began to use some alarming sounds to convey fear, trumpeting their success in war with animals and fellow beings, and by crying to express their sad thoughts. Their feeling of joy and exhilaration found expression in song and dance. People harmoniously blended bodily expressions and those refined forms of sound, which became the art of folk. The primitive society was agrarian society. They celebrated various socio religious festivals for a productive life and for expressing the gratitude to supernatural forces to god or to gods.