Culture and Politics in South Asia: Performative Communication

by Dev Nath Pathak (Editor), Sasanka Perera (Editor)

Overview

This volume looks at the politics of communication and culture in contemporary South Asia. It explores languages, signs and symbols reflective of current mythologies that underpin instances of performance in present-day India and its neighbouring countries. From gender performances and stage depictions to protest movements, folk songs to cinematic reconstructions and elections to war-torn regions, the chapters in the book bring the multiple voices embedded within the grand theatre of popular performance and the cultural landscape of the region to the fore.

Breaking new ground, this work will prove useful to students and researchers in sociology and social anthropology, art and performance studies, political studies and international relations, communication and media studies and culture studies.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781138201132
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	07/18/2017
Pages:	344
Product dimensions:	5.44(w) x 8.50(h) x (d)

About the Author

Dev Nath Pathak is Assistant Professor, Department of Sociology at South Asian University, New Delhi, India.

Sasanka Perera is Professor, Department of Sociology and Vice President at South Asian University, New Delhi, India.

Table of Contents

List of Figures. Foreword. Preface: A Personal Note of Public Significance. Acknowledgements. Contributors 1. Introduction: Towards an Inconclusive Scheme of Performative Communication Unfolding the Discursive Terrain 2. Scripting Violence, Performing Terror: A Discursive Soliloquy 3. Performance of Personal and National Redefinition: Combining the Global and the National in Indian Media and Politics Implications of Performative Politics 4. Nationalistic Authorship and Resistance: Performative Politics in Post-war Northeastern Sri Lanka 5. Teshro Lingis and Dalals: Gender Performance and the Question of Foreclosure in contemporary Political discourse of Nepal 6. Protests, Resistance and Violence: The Collective Performance of Everyday Images in Manipur 7. Civil society as a Site of Performed Identity: Exploring the Naga Context 8. The Magic called Elections: Polls, Performance and Citizenship Myriad Mediums and Multiple Metaphors 9. Depicting Labour, Performing Labour: Working Women in Pranlal Patel’s Jyoti Sangh Series 10. Performative Politics and The Iconography of Gita Press: A Critical Reading 11. Performative Implications of Genres: A Critical Rumination 12. Bhojpuri Folksongs as Scripts of Conjugal Performance 13. Cinematic Construction of Other: Performing Pakistan in Hindi Cinema 14. Performing the Printed: In the Robe with the Meanings of Block Printing Socio-cultural Public sphere(s) 15. Performative Shahbag: Debating Culture and Politics of Youth in Contemporary Bangladesh 16. Performing Democracy: On the Communicative Structure of News Television 17. Conflicting Moralities of Indian Nation: Reasoning with Vijay Tendulkar’s Theatre. Index

Editorial Reviews

‘The conjunction of performance and communication offers us the means to understand the relationship between text and context in all its complexity. This volume offers us insights into the mutual unsettling, shaping, giving meaning to performative communication as tradition, resistance, compliance, and as myriad instances of cultural politics. And in that process it provides startlingly new insights on both performance and communication. A powerful collection that breaches disciplinary boundaries and contributes to new thinking.’

Pradip Ninan Thomas, Associate Professor, School of Communication and Arts, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, The University of Queensland, Australia

‘Very broad in scope, this volume addresses issues of contemporary concern in the politics of culture across South Asia. It will be of interest to scholars across many fields of study and its comparative perspective will fill a critical gap in the literature on this subject.’

Roma Chatterji, Professor, Department of Sociology, University of Delhi, India

From the Publisher