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Unfinished Gestures: Devadasis, Memory, and Modernity in South India
Davesh Soneji
€ 36.99
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Description for Unfinished Gestures: Devadasis, Memory, and Modernity in South India
Paperback. Presents the social and cultural history of courtesans in South India who are generally called devadasis, focusing on their encounters with colonial modernity in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. This title charts the historical fissures that lie beneath cultural modernity in South India. Series: South Asia Across the Disciplines. Num Pages: 312 pages, 48 halftones, 6 line drawings. BIC Classification: 1FKA; HBTB; JFSJ1. Category: (G) General (US: Trade). Dimension: 222 x 159 x 17. Weight in Grams: 444.
"Unfinished Gestures" presents the social and cultural history of courtesans in South India who are generally called devadasis, focusing on their encounters with colonial modernity in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Following a hundred years of vociferous social reform, including a 1947 law that criminalized their lifestyles, the women in devadasi communities contend with severe social stigma and economic and cultural disenfranchisement. Adroitly combining ethnographic fieldwork with historical research, Davesh Soneji provides a comprehensive portrait of these marginalized women and unsettles received ideas about relations among them, the aesthetic roots of their performances, and the political efficacy of social ... Read more
"Unfinished Gestures" presents the social and cultural history of courtesans in South India who are generally called devadasis, focusing on their encounters with colonial modernity in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Following a hundred years of vociferous social reform, including a 1947 law that criminalized their lifestyles, the women in devadasi communities contend with severe social stigma and economic and cultural disenfranchisement. Adroitly combining ethnographic fieldwork with historical research, Davesh Soneji provides a comprehensive portrait of these marginalized women and unsettles received ideas about relations among them, the aesthetic roots of their performances, and the political efficacy of social ... Read more
Product Details
Format
Paperback
Publication date
2012
Publisher
The University of Chicago Press
Number of pages
312
Condition
New
Series
South Asia Across the Disciplines
Number of Pages
312
Place of Publication
, United States
ISBN
9780226768106
SKU
V9780226768106
Shipping Time
Usually ships in 7 to 11 working days
Ref
99-50
About Davesh Soneji
Davesh Soneji is associate professor of South Asian religions at McGill University. He is coeditor of Performing Pasts: Reinventing the Arts in Modern South India and editor of Bharatanatyam: A Reader.
Reviews for Unfinished Gestures: Devadasis, Memory, and Modernity in South India
"Sensitive, sympathetic, and very well-written, Unfinished Gestures moves the debate about devadasis in a new and interesting direction and will be the standard bearer in the field. Soneji's ethnographic work supports his historical claims and brings to life the poignancy of contemporary devadasis' lives." (Janaki Bakhle, Columbia University)"