Impersonations The Artifice of Brahmin Masculinity in South Indian Dance |
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Author:
| Kamath, Harshita Mruthinti |
ISBN: | 978-0-520-30166-5 |
Publication Date: | Jun 2019 |
Publisher: | University of California Press
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Book Format: | Paperback |
List Price: | AUD $57.95 |
Book Description:
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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...
More Description 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.