Impersonations : The Artifice of Brahmin Masculinity in South Indian Dance / Harshita Mruthinti Kamath.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Kamath, Harshita Mruthinti, Author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Brahmans--India, South--Social life and customs.

Brahmans.

Female impersonators--India, South--Social life and customs.

Female impersonators.

Gender identity in dance--India, South.

Gender identity in dance.

Kuchipudi (Dance)--Social aspects--India, South.

Kuchipudi (Dance).

Masculinities.

Gender roles.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xv, 225 pages) : illustrations; PDF, digital file(s).

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Oakland University of California Press 2019

Berkeley, CA : University of California Press, [2019]

Language Note:

In English.

System Details:

text file

Summary:

Learn more at www.luminosoa.org.Impersonations: The Artifice of Brahmin Masculinity in South Indian Dance centers on an insular community of Smarta Brahmin men from the Kuchipudi village in Telugu-speaking South India who are required to don stri-vesam (woman's guise) and impersonate female characters from Hindu religious narratives. Impersonation is not simply a gender performance circumscribed to the Kuchipudi stage, but a practice of power that enables the construction of hegemonic Brahmin masculinity in everyday village life. However, the power of the Brahmin male body in stri-vesam is highly contingent, particularly on account of the expansion of Kuchipudi in the latter half of the twentieth century from a localized village performance to a transnational Indian dance form. This book analyzes the practice of impersonation across a series of boundaries-village to urban, Brahmin to non-Brahmin, hegemonic to non-normative-to explore the artifice of Brahmin masculinity in contemporary South Indian dance.

Contents:

Frontmatter

Contents

Illustrations

Acknowledgments

Note on Transliteration

Introduction

1. Taking Center Stage: The Poet-Saint and the Impersonator of Kuchipudi Dance History

2. "I am Satyabhama": Constructing Hegemonic Brahmin Masculinity in the Kuchipudi Village

3. Constructing Artifice, Interrogating Impersonation: Madhavi as Vidūṣaka in Village Bhāmākalāpam Performance

4. Bhāmākalāpam beyond the Village: Transgressing Norms of Gender and Sexuality in Urban and Transnational Kuchipudi Dance

5. Longing to Dance: Stories of Kuchipudi Brahmin Women

Conclusion: Rewriting the Script for Kuchipudi Dance

Notes

Bibliography

Index

Notes:

Description based upon print version of record.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

This eBook is made available Open Access under a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 license: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0 https://www.degruyter.com/dg/page/open-access-policy

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 06. Apr 2020)

Other Format:

Print version:

ISBN:

9780520301665

0520301668

OCLC:

1083701605

Access Restriction:

Unrestricted online access.