The Transformation of Gender Roles and Relations in South Asia in the Late 19Th and Early
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