Gender and Performance in South Asia

A Mini-Course at the University of Oslo, September 2010

Prof. Kathryn Hansen

University of Texas at Austin

Syllabus

1 Eroticism and Artistic Patronage in Pre-Colonial India

Reading:

Francesca Orsini, ed., Love in South Asia, Introduction, 1-39.

Optional:

Doris Srinivasan, “Royalty’s Courtesans and God’s Mortal Wives,” in The Courtesan’s Arts, ed. Martha Feldman and Bonnie Gordon, 161-181.

Katherine Butler Brown, “If Music Be the Food of Love: Masculinity and Eroticism in the Mughal mehfil,” in Love in South Asia, 61-83.

2 Sanitization of Performance under Colonialism and Nationalism

Reading:

Uma Chakravarti, “Whatever Happened to the Vedic Dasi,” Pts I & II, in Recasting Women, ed. Kumkum Sangari & Sudesh Vaid, 27-60.

Sumanta Banerjee, “Marginalization of Women’s Popular Culture in Nineteenth Century Bengal,” intro, Pts II & III, in Recasting Women, 127-132, 147-168.

Optional

Remainder of Chakravarti & Banerjee articles.

Charu Gupta, Sexuality, Obscenity, Community, Chapter 3, “Sanitising Women’s Social Spaces,” 85-122.

3 Devadasis and Dance Traditions in South India

Reading:

Amrit Srinivasan, “Reform and Revival: The Devadasi and Her Dance,” EPW 20:44 (1985), 1869-1876.

Optional:

Matthew Allen, “Rewriting the Script for South Indian Dance,” TDR 41:3 (1997), 63-100.

Davesh Soneji, “Living History, Performing Memory: Devadasi Women in Telugu-Speaking South India,” Dance Research Journal, 36:2, 30-49.

4 Baijis and Classical Music in North India

Reading:

Regula Qureshi, “Female Agency and Patrilineal Constraints: Situating Courtesans in Twentieth-Century India,” in The Courtesan’s Arts, 312-331.

Optional:

Amlan Das Gupta, “Women and Music: The Case of North India,” in Women of India: Colonial and Post-Colonial Periods, ed. Bharati Ray, 454-484.

Amelia Maciszewski, “Tawa’if, Tourism, and Tales: The Problematics of Twenty-First-Century Musical Patronage for North India’s Courtesans,” in The Courtesan’s Arts, 332-351.

5 Female Impersonation and Parsi Theatre in Western India

Reading:

Kathryn Hansen, “Stri Bhumika: Female Impersonators and Actresses on the Parsi Stage,” EPW33:35 (1998), 2291-2300.

Optional:

Anjum Katyal, “Performing the Goddess: Sacred Ritual into Professional Performance,” TDR 45:1 (2001), 96-117.

6 Ritual and Transgenderism Today

Reading:

Gayatri Reddy, With Respect to Sex: Negotiating Hijra Identity, Chapter 7, “’Our People’: Kinship, Marriage, and the Family,” 142-185.

Optional:

Nicholas Bradford, “Transgenderism and the Cult of Yellamma,” in Que(e)rying Religion, ed. Gary David Comstock & Susan E. Henking, 294-310.

Screening: Music for a Goddess, DVD by Amy Catlin-Jairazbhoy and Nazir Ali Jairazbhoy

(for desc., see