Grounds for Play : The Nautanki Theatre of North India / Kathryn Hansen.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Hansen, Kathryn, author.

Contributor:

American Council of Learned Societies.

Series:

ACLS Fellows’ publications.

ACLS Humanities E-Book

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Nautanki.

Folk drama, Hindi--History and criticism.

Folk drama, Hindi.

Theater--India.

Theater.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xvii, 367 p. ) ill., music ;

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

Berkeley, California : University of California Press, [1992]

Language Note:

English

Summary:

The nautanki performances of northern India entertain their audiences with often ribald and profane stories. Rooted in the peasant society of pre-modern India, this theater vibrates with lively dancing, pulsating drumbeats, and full-throated singing. In Grounds for Play, Kathryn Hansen draws on field research to describe the different elements of nautanki performance: music, dance, poetry, popular story lines, and written texts. She traces the social history of the form and explores the play of meanings within nautanki narratives, focusing on the ways important social issues such as political authority, community identity, and gender differences are represented in these narratives. Unlike other styles of Indian theater, the nautanki does not draw on the pan-Indian religious epics such as the Ramayana or the Mahabharata for its subjects. Indeed, their storylines tend to center on the vicissitudes of stranded heroines in the throes of melodramatic romance. Whereas nautanki performers were once much in demand, live performances now are rare and nautanki increasingly reaches its audiences through electronic media--records, cassettes, films, television. In spite of this change, the theater form still functions as an effective conduit in the cultural flow that connects urban centers and the hinterland in an ongoing process of exchange.

Contents:

Front matter

Contents

List of Illustrations

Acknowledgments

Note on Transliteration

Introduction

1. The Name of the NautankI

2. Situating an Intermediary Theatre

3. The Landscape of Premodern Performance

4. Authors, Akhāṛās, and Texts

5. Kings, Warriors, and Bandits

6. Paradigms of Pure Love

7. Women's Lives and Deaths

8. Melody, Meter, and the Musical Medium

9. Conclusion

Epilogue

The Kidnapping of Indal (lndal haran)

Appendixes

Notes

Bibliography

Index

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Includes bibliographical references (p. 337-350) and index.

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 01. Okt 2020)

Description based on print version record.

ISBN:

9780520910881

0520910885

9780585130644

0585130647

OCLC:

1198930812