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Publication
Folktales: The Microcosm of Cultural Heritage
| Name: | Description: | Size: | Format: | |
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| 79.77 MB | Adobe PDF |
Authors
Abstract(s)
The art of storytelling, whether it is through published stories or folktales that are conveyed
through re-tellings from one generation to another, fulfils a deep need in society. The need
for us to define ourselves through our shared morals and belief systems. Folktales have
always played a crucial part in this perpetuation of our cultural values and humanity through
storytelling. This art is now experiencing a renaissance. The values and beliefs of our rapidly
developing society conflict with the representation of characters both in prose and in graphic
design in these age-old folktales. The current generation's lack of interest in leafing through
the pages of a book is exacerbated by this huge gap in design sensibilities and moral values
between the past and the ever-dynamic present. While graphic novels, anime, comic books
are still popular reading grounds for adolescents and teens, the genre of folktales has been
relegated to either infantile books aimed at toddlers or over-the-top big-budget Hollywood
movie productions.
Entering the twenty-first century, modern storytellers need to reshape the old tales, breathing
new life into the familiar myths of our past, and adapting them for the modern audience.
Even the Grimm brothers adapted the stories they collected to fit their Victorian era. They
eliminated erotic and sexual elements that might be offensive to middle-class morality.
Folktales are as old as the spoken word and this makes it imperative to preserve their value
and relevance to the modern reader. This thesis aims to show the visual and contextual
similarities across folktales by studying the visual identity and its elements like colour palette,
icons or symbols, typography, and layout complexity. Select tales will then be contemporised
to reveal these congruities in a story book to assert that folktales have to evolve along with
the society from which they are derived.
Description
Keywords
Folktales Folk stories Storytelling Culture Contemporize Adaptation