-
METAMORPHOSIS OF FOLKTALES FROM INDIA IN SALMAN RUSHDIE’S LUKA AND THE FIRE OF LIFE
Designation : Stella Maris College, Chennai
Journal Name : Reserach maGma
Publication Date : 11/10/2017
Abstract :
Salman Rushdie derived few folkloric elements and combined it with magical realism techniques in order to make an effective reading. He used the folkloric elements only in his latter novels as an effect of Fatwa, the death punishment that he receives after his protest against God and Islam in his work Satanic Verses. Of course his latter works also contains few allegorical meaning but not to that extent. He used lots of symbolic meanings and folkloric elements to hide all the nuances he raised against someone or something. Rushdie on the whole understands the importance of ancient storytelling tradition; this enables him to introduce the so-called “storyteller” character in most of his works. The storyteller is present in Rushdie’s masterpiece Midnight’s children, The Enchantress of Florence, Haroun and the sea of stories, and finally in Luka and the Fire of Life. They play the major role in safeguarding the storytelling tradition either in real life or in the story. Rushdie as a storyteller exemplifies this by including storytelling technique almost in all his novels. He also includes other elements of folktales such as riddles, myths, legends etc. to keep the tradition alive.
Keywords :
Folktales, Oral Traditions of India.