Folklore-Its Methods and Theories

Phurailatpam Jayalaxmi *

What is folklore? - A tale or a simple fable. The meaning may be the same but it bears different meanings to different people. Before I attended the National Workshop on Folklore: Theories and Methods recently organized by the Department of English, Manipur University, it was my first impression that folklore is just a story about legends and myths.

The idea of story­telling has been prevalent since antiquity. Oral culture has been the form of art which preserves the root of our own culture. Professor Jawahar Handoo, the well-known International Folklorist and presently the President of Indian Folklore Congress, who was the resource person of the workshop rightly said that folklore in the form of oral discourse gives voices to marginalized people.

Most of the literary forms cannot lend voice to the subaltern but folklore can. It is only in the form of oral tradition that we can locate the native elements of our own root. The nuances of any community can be discovered through the folklore.

Folklore like any other disciplines can be approached through various empirical methods such as—fieldwork and classification, comparative method/ historical methods, analytic units (trait, motif, type, function, mytheme), structuralism, psycho-analytical interpretations, post­structuralism, so on and so forth.

Language and society are formed within a structure. The structuralists draw an analogy between language systems and social systems. As folklore is part of this social system, it has possessed its own lexical structure. Every element or myth in a folktale is structured so as to show the internal relationships among the elements to make it a complete whole thereby giving a meaning to the story.

Vladimir Propp was the most dominant figure in the study of folklore. His Morphology of Folktale (1928) contributes to the analysis of the fundamental structure of the Russian folktale. He believed that like myths, all folktales are structurally identical if approached from the point of view of their composition.

Accordingly, in preference to analysing the characters, he began to categorize the diverse types of actions performed by the characters, or might have performed in every tale, from the stance of their signification of the development of the plot. Propp finally recognized thirty-one constant functions of folktales. Every folktale which is prevalent in every nook and corner of the world can be studied through the Given Method of Propp. Here only a few practitioners of folklore are mentioned.

There are others with different views on it. Another important figure is Levi-Strauss. He gave the Rearrangement Method of folklore study. He endeavoured to extend the Saussurean principles beyond the realm of linguistics.

He applied the structural linguistics to other non-linguistic material in an analogous way which he phrased as "phonological revolution". He segmented the variety of myths into basic units of signification, which he gave the name "mytheme". He rearranged the units in a matrix to give a deep meaning of the myth and the diachronic unfolding of the plot thereby establishing a certain type of communication between individuals and communities.

Folklore study is important as it gives us a privilege to learn about our own culture and society. As the world is becoming a global village with people of different nationalities trotting across the globe and inhabiting in different parts of the world, the need for folklore study is coming to be more significant as this will be the only means to retain our own roots, culture and sense of belongingness to a certain community.

Folklore gives an impression of collectiveness of the shared culture. The problems and anxieties of any community will reflect on the riddles and folklores. In some communities, an act of riddle is done during death or marriage to minimize the tensions of someone's departure.

The tensions are reduced by introducing a variable like riddle/myth to mediate the binary opposites of sad and joy. If we make an attempt to uncover the symbolic meaning behind any folktale then we will find the solution to the problem. The only thing is to locate the events which are concealed from the symbolic disguise. We should search for an answer for the society from folklores.

There may be different versions of folktales among various communities because of its geographical and historical differences but the core function of the tale will remain the same. Even if the story is generated into numerous versions we can easily know the similarity in the story because of its type or frame.

For instance, the Manipuri Epic Khamba Thoibi may have different versions like Heer Ranja, Laila Majnu, etc. The backdrop may not be the same but they discuss the problems prevalent during that time within varied communities.

There are many discourses to explain our native land. But the true image of our culture and society can be achieved through folklore which is purely based on oral discourse.

The written documentation can be altered but the oral of natives cannot. The written form is the representation which lessens the authenticity of the elements. Professor J. Handoo's insightful lectures would mark an overpowering impression among youths to maintain their own culture through the folklores. He underscored the need for a good archive to store the different versions of folktales narrated by the old people for future use.

Any folklore or fairy tale carries a symbolic meaning. Next time when we listen to our grandfathers and grandmothers' stories on

• Pebet,
• Lai Khusangbi,
• Hanuba Hanubi Paan Thabagi Wari,
• Taptagi Wari,
• Sandrenbi Cheisagi Wari,
• Lukhrabi Macha Mee Makokki Wari,