Research Catalog

Title

Impersonations : the artifice of Brahmin masculinity in South Indian dance / Harshita Mruthinti Kamath.

Author

Kamath, Harshita Mruthinti, 1982-

Publication

• Oakland, California : University of California Press, [2019]
• ©2019

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Description

xv, 225 pages : illustrations, maps; 23 cm

Summary

"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"--Provided by publisher.

Subject

• Brahmans > India, South > Social life and customs
• Gender identity in dance > India, South
• Female impersonators > India, South > Social life and customs
• Kuchipudi (Dance) > Social aspects > India, South
• Brahmans > Social life and customs
• Gender identity in dance
• South India

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references and index.

Contents

Introduction -- 1. Taking center stage : the poet-saint and the impersonator of Kuchipudi dance history -- 2. "I am Satyabhama" : constructing hegemonic Brahmin masculinity in the Kuchipudi village -- 3. Constructing artifice, interrogating impersonation : Madhavi as Vidūṣaka in village Bhāmākalāpam performance -- 4. Bhāmākalāpam beyond the village : transgressing norms of gender and sexuality in urban and transnational Kuchipudi dance -- 5. Longing to dance : stories of Kuchipudi Brahmin women -- Conclusion: rewriting the script for Kuchipudi dance.

Call Number

JFE 19-7734

ISBN

• 9780520301665
• 0520301668

LCCN

• 2018061418
• 40029256071

OCLC

1055264302

Author

Kamath, Harshita Mruthinti, 1982- author.

Title

Impersonations : the artifice of Brahmin masculinity in South Indian dance / Harshita Mruthinti Kamath.

Publisher

Oakland, California : University of California Press, [2019]

Copyright Date

©2019

Type of Content

text

Type of Medium

unmediated

Type of Carrier

volume

Bibliography

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Other Form:

Online version: Kamath, Harshita Mruthinti, 1982- author. Impersonations Oakland, California : University of California Press, [2019] 9780520972230 (DLC) 2019003975

Other Standard Identifier

40029256071

Research Call Number

JFE 19-7734