Q4 of 15 Page 172

List the distinctive features of the tribal arts.

G.N. Devy lists certain distinctive characteristics of tribal arts, one of which is their unique manner of constructing space and imagery, which might be described as ‘hallucinatory’. In both oral and visual forms of representation, tribal artists seem to interpret verbal or pictorial space as demarcated by an extremely flexible frame. The boundaries between art and non-art become almost invisible in tribal arts. Tribal paintings merge with living space as if the two were one and the same. There is no deliberate attempt to follow a sequence. Tribal paintings also contain a curious mixture of traditional and modern imagery.


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How does G.N. Devy bring out the importance of the oral literary tradition?

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‘New literature’ is a misnomer for the wealth of the Indian literary tradition. How does G.N. Devy explain this?

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Discuss the following in pairs or in groups of four

‘It is time to realise that unless we modify the established notion of literature as something written, we will silently witness the decline of various Indian oral traditions.’