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Making the right choice : narratives of marriage in Sri Lanka / Asha L. Abeyasekera.
- Format:
- Book
- Author/Creator:
- Abeyasekera, Asha, author.
- Series:
- Politics of marriage and gender: global issues in local contexts.
- Politics of marriage and gender: global issues in local contexts
- Language:
- English
- Subjects (All):
- Social change--Sri Lanka.
- Social change.
- Marriage--Sri Lanka.
- Marriage.
- Arranged marriage--Sri Lanka.
- Arranged marriage.
- Physical Description:
- 1 online resource (229 pages) : illustrations.
- Place of Publication:
- New Brunswick, New Jersey : Rutgers University Press, [2021]
- Summary:
- Making the Right Choice unravels the entangled relationship between marriage, morality, and the desire for modernity as it plays out in the context of middle-class status concerns and aspirations for upward social mobility within the Sinhala-Buddhist community in urban Sri Lanka. By focusing on individual life-histories spanning three generations, the book illuminates how narratives about a gendered self and narratives about modernity are mutually constituted and intrinsically tied to notions of agency. The book uncovers how "becoming modern" in urban Sri Lanka, rather than causing inter-generational conflict, is a collective aspiration realized through the efforts of bringing up educated and independent women capable of making "right" choices. The consequence of this collective investment is a feminist conundrum: agency does not denote the right to choose, but the duty to make the "right" choice; hence agency is experienced not as a sense of "freedom," but rather as a burden of responsibility.
- Contents:
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- Series Foreword
- Introduction
- 1. Sinhala Marriage: Then and Now
- 2. Making the “Right” Choice
- 3. Structuring the “Right” Choice
- 4. The Virtuous Self: Failed Marriages
- 5. The Valued Self: Singleness
- 6. The Vindicated Self: Divorce
- Conclusion
- Acknowledgments
- Notes
- References
- Index
- Notes:
- Description based on print version record.
- Includes bibliographical references and index.
- ISBN:
- 1-9788-1034-2
- OCLC:
- 1233253783
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