Folklore Of Bangladesh

Folklore of Bangladesh, edited by Shamsuzzaman Khan, is a collection of essays by eminent folklorists mostly of Bangladesh. The essays, spanning over a half century of writing, highlights both descriptive and theoretical issues in folklore studies in Bangladesh in addition to introducing its vast richness of folklore with an explanation of the works of the folklorists in the colonial period (prior to 1947).

The essays cover a wide range of socio-cultural topics peculiar to the Bengali society. The thread that unites these essays is not merely that of integration for the sake of gaining an insight into the idiosyncrasy of the folklore of Bangladesh but also that of a goal, the goal to advance the systematic and innovative study of folklore in this country.

While each essay is an attempt to investigate folklore in its socio-cultural context, Dusan Zbavitos The Development of the Baromasit the Bengali Literature", Firoz Mahmud Methodologies for the Study of Folk Art of Bangladesh', Syed Jamil Ahmed's 'A Psychoanalytic Reading of Mälañcamāla, Rüpbän, Nür Bănu, and Madanamañjari: Popular Imaginings of the Wife-Mother by the Bengali People', and Shamsuzzaman Khan's 'Festvals of Bengali Muslims in Evolution' also imply an effort to explore the theoretical implications of a perspective for the analysis and interpretation of folklore.

The readers, especially the emerging folklorists, will benefit tremendously from the reading of these essays.