000			01715nam a22001457a 4500
020			_a9781138363632
082			_a792.095414 _bRIM/P
100			_aRimli Bhattacharya
245			_a Public women in British India : icons and the urban stage
260			_aLondon _bRoutledge _c2018
300			_a349p.
520			_aThis book foregrounds the subjectivity of ‘acting women’ amidst violent debates on femininity and education, livelihood and labour, sexuality and marriage. It looks at the emergence of the stage actress as an artist and an ideological construct at critical phases of performance practice in British India. The focus here is on Calcutta, considered the ‘second city of the Empire’ and a nodal point in global trade circuits. Each chapter offers new ways of conceptualising the actress as a professional, a colonial subject, simultaneously the other and the model of the ‘new woman’. An underlying motif is the playing out of the idea of spiritual salvation, redemption and modernity. Analysing the dynamics behind stagecraft and spectacle, the study highlights the politics of demarcation and exclusion of social roles. It presents rich archival work from diverse sources, many translated for the first time. This book makes a distinctive contribution in intertwining performance studies with literary history and art practices within a cross-cultural framework. Interdisciplinary and innovative, it will appeal to scholars and researchers in South Asian theatre and performance studies, history and gender studies.
650			_aTheater-India _aGender identity _aManners and customs _aMass media--Study and teaching _aMotion pictures--Study and teaching _aPerforming arts
942			_cBK
999			_c60246 _d60246