Covering nearly 225 years, this volume tries to capture a broad spectrum of the situation of women performers from Gerasim Lebedeff's time (1795), who are considered to be the first performers in modern Bengali theatre, to today's time. The moot question is whether the role of women as performers evolved down the centuries. Whether this question will lead us to their subjugation to their male counterparts, producers, and directors has been explored here to give readers an understanding of when, where, by whom the politics began, and, by tracing the footprints, we have tried to understand if the politics has changed, or remains unchanged, or metamorphosed with regard to the woman's question in the performance discourse. We have explored, in this regard, how her body, mind, and sexuality interacted with and negotiated the phallocentric hierarchy. The essays included are on (i) Baiji/Tawaif culture in eastern and western Bengal; (ii) prostitute/'fallen' women/ patita, beshya performers; (iii) IPTA and the Naxalbari movement; (iv) group and commercial/professional theatre of Kolkata; (v) women's position in the theatre of Bangladesh; (vi) Cabaret (with an interview with Miss Shefali) (vii) Jatra; (viii) Baul tradition. (ix) Besides, there are chapters on English, Anglo-Indian, Jew, Nachni performers and the illustrious dancer Amala Shankar, and film-music-dance in general.
Edited by:
Manujendra Kundu (Author editor playwright and critic)
Imprint: Oxford University Press
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions:
Height: 223mm,
Width: 245mm,
Spine: 23mm
Weight: 1g
ISBN: 9780192871510
ISBN 10: 019287151X
Pages: 354
Publication Date: 22 February 2024
Audience:
General/trade
,
ELT Advanced
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active
"Manujendra Kundu: Introduction 'Home': The Repository of Polar Play-acting and Challenges of Circularity to Women's Acting out 1: Syed Jamil Ahmed: Footprints of the Outliers: Female Performers in Colonial Eastern Bengal 2: Devajit Bandyopadhyay: The 'Fallen Women' of Culture: An Overview of Bengali Performers from the Dark Chambers of Bengal (1795-1930s) 3: Sumanta Banerjee: Feminine Experiences in the Bengali Stage-From patita to bhadramahila, and to Today's New patita 4: Bishnupriya Dutt: Actresses in a Period of Transition (1947-1952): Connecting Actress Stories with Their Histories 5: Mallarika Sinha Roy: Women in Search of a Play: Theatricality and Gender, From the IPTA to the Naxalbari Movement 6: Kuntal Mukhopadhyay & Manujendra Kundu: Entangled in Performance: Women in Group and Commercial/Professional Theatre in Kolkata (1940s-2000s) 7: Arijita Mukhopadhyay: Labour, Infrastructure, Division of Labour and the Position of the New Generation Women Performers in Kolkata 8: Madhubanti De: Survival, Agency and the Politics of Compromise: The Contemporary Stage and Screen Actresses in Kolkata 9: Samina Luthfa: Can Female Performers be Heard?: Her Stories in Theatre of Bangladesh (1950s-2010s) 10: Aishika Chakraborty: Desire, Decadence and A ""Dirty"" Dancer: A Conversation with Miss Shefali 11: Urmimala Sarkar Munsi: 'Extending' Uday Shankar's Dance Pedagogy?: Articulation of Agency in Amala Shankar's Work 12: Prabhatkumar Das: Life of Jatra Actresses: Stories of Unending Struggle (1950s-2010s) 13: Sudhir Chakravarti: The Enigmatic World of Sadhansanginis 14: Urmimala Sarkar Munsi: Bonds of Labour: Nachni Women as the Dancer in the Margin 15: Poulomi Das: Poverty to Sustenance: The Respectable/Shameful Journey of Women Performers of Sundarban"
Manujendra Kundu is the Founding Editor of Springer's Book Series titled Performance Studies & Cultural Discourse in South Asia. The decade-long journalist, who worked for institutions like Anandabazar Patrika and Zee Media, did his PhD on the Third Theatre in Bengal. His book titled So Near, Yet So Far: Badal Sircar's Third Theatre was published by Oxford University Press, New Delhi, in 2016. He is an author, editor, playwright, cultural commentator, and analyst who specializes in Cultural Studies, Performance Studies, Media Studies, Tagore Studies, and the intellectual history of India.
Reviews for Women Performers in Bengal and Bangladesh: Caught up in the Culture of South Asia (1795-2010s)
This anthology takes its readers on an enthralling journey across a span of over two centuries to the engagements and negotiations of women as performers and cultural workers in Bengal and Bangladesh. It is an essential read for those wishing to understand and explore the dynamics of the subliminal spaces that exist between the public and private in the discourses of performance and non-performance. * Meghna Guhathakurta, Executive Director, Research Initiatives,Bangladesh, Dhaka * A significant contribution to scholarship on the performing arts, gender studies and sociology. An inclusive and wide-ranging project, encompassing dance and embrace Bangladesh and West Bengal, and consciously treating rural music alongside theatre, crossing borders to and urban art forms on equal footing. * Ananda Lal, Former Professor, Department of English, Jadavpur University, Kolkata *
