From Oral Tradition to "Folk Art": Reevaluating Bengali Scroll Paintings
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 (paṭuẏā)-and the practice of storytelling in contemporary West Benga...
| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
| Published: |
Asian Folklore Institute
[2002]
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| In: |
Asian folklore studies
Year: 2002, Volume: 61, Issue: 1, Pages: 105-122 |
| Further subjects: | B
ART exhibitions
B Arts patronage B Storytelling B Oral Tradition B Scrolls B Folklore B Indian art B Hindus B Folk art |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (Verlag) Volltext (doi) Volltext (kostenfrei) |
| Summary: | 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 (paṭuẏā)-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 and a 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 art," as it is perceived today, is a quite recent phenomenon, generated to a great extent by the urban intellectual elite of Calcutta. |
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| Contains: | Enthalten in: Asian folklore studies
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| Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.2307/1178679 |