Common literary devices in Fakeers’ songs a view based on Fakeers’ songs in Ampara district

Abstract

Fakeer Society has been interacting and influencing in Sri Lankan Muslims’ culture throughout the history with their activities related to art and literature. Among their art forms, ‘Fakeer Baith’ plays major role for social and cultural interaction. They have produced number of songs and performed them with the musical instrument called “Dahara” in platforms such as stage, home yard of people and common places where people gather, in order to convey moral thoughts and teaching. Their songs mainly consist of religious & spiritual thoughts and social issues. They could be identified and highlighted by some elements (they can be considered as literary Devices) which Fakeers used commonly to produce their songs. This study also focuses on identifying those common literary devices in their songs. It was counducted based on selected songs of fakeers which are included in the dissertation entitled “South Eastern Muslim Culture and Fakir Baith” (2018) submitted to the Department of Languages of South eastern University of Sri Lanka in partial fulfillment of the requirement for the award of special degree in Tamil. For this study, the formalist approach was applied. As the result, following literary devices are found and discussed: dramatic conversation, Imagination, Symbolism, Metaphor and word choice for pleasure of listening.