Performance Studies & Cultural Discourse in South Asia – serie

This book offers a critical lens on understanding jatra as a historical-cultural performance and reveals its impact on class and gender politics across India. It challenges colonial authority and navigates complex political nuances across cultures. Through exclusive interviews, the book articulates how jatra, as a performance form, has been marginalized and "othered" due to entrenched class and gender-based hegemony. It explores the fusion of multiple “folk” forms and their ideals within jatra, resulting in its hybrid identity. Each chapter examines the historical exchanges between performance and cultural practices. It sheds light on how class and gender identities intertwined with “folk” forms and street performances have influenced contemporary jatra's hybrid identity formation. It is an intriguing book for scholars in Theatre and Performance Studies, Cultural Studies, South Asian Studies, Gender and Queer Studies, and Postcolonial Studies. Also, it offers valuable insights for scholars in modern Indian languages and those exploring “folk” performances in contemporary India. It is a valuable resource for theatre and literary theory classrooms, graduate seminars, and scholars examining the challenges of translating culturally specific texts.

This book provides a scholarly inquiry into Indian oral narratives, cultural practices, and traditional performances, offering essential insights on the intersection of rituals, storytelling, and performance art. It is organized into four sections, each offering a comprehensive exploration of a distinct thematic area. Section I, Devotional Performance Narratives and Oral Tales, presents an integrated view of oral storytelling, devotional performances, and societal beliefs. Section II, Divine Possession and Cultural Practices, delves into divine and spiritual possession within Indian folklore and rituals. Section III, Sacred Unions and Ritual Narratives, focuses on rituals associated with marriage and motherhood. Finally, Section IV, Indian Folklore and the Resonance of Resistance, examines themes of resistance within folklore, including traditional forms such as grind-mill songs. This book offers a critical and comprehensive examination by scholars, academicians, and professionals in oral literature, with each chapter carefully constructed to bring together diverse perspectives. The book appeals to students, researchers, and individuals interested in folklore, cultural studies, and literature.

This book explores the processes of disfiguration in the 'classical' and 'ritual-healing' performances of India, with a particular focus on the rich and diverse performance traditions of Kerala. It examines three modes of disfiguration—'blood,' 'madness,' and 'laughter'—to offer unique insights into how these elements shape the performative body. By drawing on Kerala’s distinctive cultural and ritual contexts, this work provides a deep understanding of the region’s embodied practices. Written from an interdisciplinary perspective, the book blends performance studies with detailed ethnographic descriptions to capture the nuances of 'pain' and 'affect.' It challenges and subverts normative notions of performance, offering a fresh lens through which to view these dynamic traditions. This book serves as an invaluable resource for scholars of dance, performance studies, and practitioners seeking to explore the interplay between region, ritual, and disfiguration in Indian performance forms.

This collection of essays covers a range of issues related to the intangible cultural heritage prevalent in South and Southeast Asia. The book thus furnishes a comprehensive account of the oral traditions, beliefs, cultural practices, language and literature, folklore, songs, foods, healing traditions, holidays, etc., of India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Cambodia, Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia, Malaysia, and Sri Lanka, along with their diversity and issues. As there are different types, issues, and challenges regarding the conservation of intangible cultural heritage, this volume is divided into four different sections. They are Oral traditions and expressions; Performing arts, rituals, sports, and festivals; Traditional cuisine; Knowledge and practices concerning life, nature, and the universe. The volume discusses a 360-degree view of issues and challenges to the intangible cultural heritage of South and Southeast Asia. Studies using extensive field studies (in countries of South and Southeast Asia) and covering a breadth of issues showcase a distinctively senior cohort of researchers whose contributions will be influential for tomorrow's research practices. The aspects analyzed are both traditional (e.g., traditional food preservation) and emerging (e.g., changing lifestyles of ethnic groups). This edited volume offers immense potential by bringing together senior and young scholars who revisit a perennial question with a sharper focus to unravel essential insights that will surely inform tomorrow's knowledge and policymaking.

This book offers the reader an in-depth understanding of Utpal Dutt’s entire career in drama. Covering Dutt’s career in proscenium, street theatre and Jatra, it analyzes the interesting exchange of dramatic art with politics in his theatre. Owing to a plethora of unsubstantiated opinions, Dutt is either revered by his followers or dismissed by his opponents, but hardly ever studied with necessary objectivity and intellectual rigour. The book attempts to bust the myth that Dutt was primarily a political propagandist who used theatre only as a means to achieve his political end. The remarkable range of Dutt’s subject matter makes him as internationally significant as he is loved by Indian theatre enthusiasts. His work has been discussed on various reputed international platforms. Yet there is a stark lacuna when it comes to intellectual attention devoted to Dutt’s theatre. This is the first book which attempts to introduce Dutt’s theatre comprehensively to an international readership.The book looks briefly at Dutt’s life, the impact of his politics on his theatre, the art of his characterization, his dramaturgy and stage technique, and the legacy of his work in theatre. It also offers the reader with a chronological list of the first performances of his original theatrical works and an exhaustive bibliography, which, it is hoped, shall prove especially useful for researchers. The book is designed for lay theatre enthusiasts as well as advanced students of theatre.

This book offers the reader an in-depth understanding of Utpal Dutt’s entire career in drama. Covering Dutt’s career in proscenium, street theatre and Jatra, it analyzes the interesting exchange of dramatic art with politics in his theatre. Owing to a plethora of unsubstantiated opinions, Dutt is either revered by his followers or dismissed by his opponents, but hardly ever studied with necessary objectivity and intellectual rigour. The book attempts to bust the myth that Dutt was primarily a political propagandist who used theatre only as a means to achieve his political end. The remarkable range of Dutt’s subject matter makes him as internationally significant as he is loved by Indian theatre enthusiasts. His work has been discussed on various reputed international platforms. Yet there is a stark lacuna when it comes to intellectual attention devoted to Dutt’s theatre. This is the first book which attempts to introduce Dutt’s theatre comprehensively to an international readership.The book looks briefly at Dutt’s life, the impact of his politics on his theatre, the art of his characterization, his dramaturgy and stage technique, and the legacy of his work in theatre. It also offers the reader with a chronological list of the first performances of his original theatrical works and an exhaustive bibliography, which, it is hoped, shall prove especially useful for researchers. The book is designed for lay theatre enthusiasts as well as advanced students of theatre.

This book provides a critical understanding of dance studies in India, bringing together various embodied practices identified loosely as dance. It suggests an alternative reading of the history of patronage, policies, and institutionalized understanding of categories such as classical, folk, modern, popular, and Bollywood that hierarchizes some dances as 'more' dance than others. It is of great interest to scholars looking at performing arts such as dance as a tool for identity assertions. It offers diverse possibilities of understanding dance through its inherent sociopolitical possibilities as a participatory or presentational tool for communication. The multidisciplinary approach brings together perspectives from critical dance studies, anthropology, history, and gender studies to connect embodied archives of different communities to create an intersectional methodology of studying dance in India as a powerful but marginal expressive art practice. Accessible at multiple levels, thecontent is relevant for undergraduate and postgraduate students, as well as researchers across dance, dance education, theatre, and performance studies.