Banana Republics and V. I. Degrees: Rethinking Indian Folklore in a Postcolonial World

The A. reviews British-based folklore studies in India, identifying a paradigm of self-contained peasant authenticity that viewed references to changing social realities as adulterations that must be edited out. He contrasts such suppressions of change with the conscious revamping of folklore materials to disseminate nationalist, Marxist, feminist, and development ideologies. He turns to contemporary examples of creative change in folklore, with a focus on urban joke cycles that are largely ignored by folklorists. He ends with suggestions for theoritical reorientations breaking down the rigid distinction between « us » as metropolitan analysts, and « them » as the folk enmeshed in tradition.