75. Seonti Roy Chowdhury

Abstract 75
Seonti Roy Chowdhury 

Orality and its dissidence in ‘Written’ literary tradition: through ‘Silappatikaram’ and ‘Nibelungenlied’

Abstract

Oral verbalization was essentially the same as the written verbalization they normally dealt with and that oral art form forms were to all intends and purposes simply texts, except for the fact that they were not written down. Now these written words are ‘residue’. Oral traditions have no such residue or deposit. When an often-told oral story is not actually being told all that exists of it is the potential in certain human beings to tell it. In order to make a comprehensive research work I shall try to keep my concern mainly on the dissidence of oral tradition in the written literary world where the not-told stories were told through the means of words and I would attempt to show that Oral tradition do have ‘residue’. Oral tradition can be defined as a source of History. My paper would try to build upon this initial framework for research focusing mainly on the fact that oral tradition truly secures its position as the source of history but tries to keep an evidence of it in the written tradition of its literary spectrum. Previously it was accepted by many scholars that the elements which were transmitted through the means of oral tradition cannot be translated. They specifically meant what was expressed orally could not be expressed when it is written. But in my paper I shall try to establish that this traditional idea is on the verge of demise and it can be articulated that it is time to re-imagine the same. I would take up for discussion the Tamil text ‘Silappatikaram’ where we come across the folkloric culture which mingles with the written tradition; the story depicting the emotions, strong determination of the chaste woman named Kannagi who succeeds to save the valuable life of her husband overcoming all the difficult obstacles. This text verifies the culture of the traditional Tamil society but most interestingly it defines the importance of the oral tradition in shaping the historical images presented in the text itself. How does this imagery get a concrete shape when it is written finally by Illango Addikal. My purpose of taking this up is to justify that written tradition is shaping the items of the so called oral tradition and its coming in practise as a proper dissidence in the time tested formulae. I would try to throw some light on the very fact that even after oral tradition has faded away it ensures its existence, which redefines the written tradition and in some cases has helped to shelter the major role played by the oral tradition. This is the tradition of ‘dissidence’ on the basis of which I would primarily aim to build my research keeping my concern on the Tamil text ‘Silappatikaram’ and the famous German epic poem ‘Nibelungenlied’ and would also like to connect both texts through which the dissidence could be clearly acknowledgeable.