DOCSLIB.ORG

Hindutva Politics and South Asian Cinema ΠMedia in the Age of Modi

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Hindutva Politics and South Asian Cinema ÂŒ Media in the Age of Modi SAFM 9 (2) pp. 73–77 Intellect Limited 2019 Studies in South Asian Film & Media Volume 9 Number 2 © 2019 Intellect Ltd Editorial. English language. doi: 10.1386/safm.9.2.73_2 Editorial Ajay Gehlawat Hindutva politics and South Asian cinema – media in the age of Modi Even as the air in India’s capital grows increasingly unbreathable, a larger spectre is haunting the subcontinent today, one just as toxic as the particulate matter floating freely in the air. It is the growing spectre of Hindutva, or Hindu nationalism, that has overcome India since the ascendancy of Narendra Modi to the post of Prime Minister. While India is not alone in this turn towards a chauvinistic right-wing ideology – witness the rise of strongmen around the globe, including in the United States, Europe, Brazil, Turkey, Egypt, Russia and the Philippines, to name but a few – the situation in India has grown particu- larly dire since Modi’s election to the top post. In the ensuing time (2014– present) one witnesses a dramatic increase of intolerance manifested through an upsurge of hate crimes perpetrated against Muslims and other minorities, often by extremist Hindu groups and their acolytes, including so-called cow vigilantes, who, in September 2015, notoriously murdered a Muslim man, Mohammed Ikhlaq, on (unfounded) suspicions that he had killed a cow and consumed its meat (Barstow and Raj 2015). In the ensuing years, there have been more than a hundred such cases of vigilante violence perpetrated against Muslims and Dalits in India (Baski and Nagarajan 2017), including nearly 70 attacks against people accused of harming cows, the overwhelming number of 73 0_SAFM 9.2_Editorial_73-77.indd 73 2/22/19 11:43 AM Ajay Gehlawat which have been directed against Muslims (Mohan 2018: 35). In 2017 alone, such vigilantes killed nearly a dozen people, making it the deadliest year for such attacks since 2010 (Mohan 2018: 35). As Rohini Mohan notes, ‘the lynch- ing of [I]khlaq, one year after the Hindu-nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) assumed power in New Delhi, has created a sort of attack template’, with intolerance in turn increasingly becoming ‘a fact of everyday life’ (2018: 35). Just as disturbing as these increasing acts of violence is the relative silence that has accompanied them from Donald Trump’s friend and fellow tweeter, Prime Minister Modi, who first addressed the killing of Ikhlaq approximately two weeks after the event had occurred (Barstow and Raj 2015). As in the United States, the mainstreaming of such intolerance in everyday life is directly related to the relative absence of public condemnation of such acts (whether in Charlottesville or Uttar Pradesh) by elected leaders, even as such silences have ‘made clear that there is no automatic political cost to crime or falsehood if it furthers the hegemonic political narrative’ (Saran 2018: n.pag.). Even as Hindu extremism has increased, in other words, it has been legitimized by group’s such as Modi’s BJP who have blatantly asserted their desire to transform India into a ‘Hindu nation’ (Abi-Habib 2018: n. pag.) and who target anyone seen as impeding such a desire. While the mainstream media, both in India and in the West, have frequently colluded in such ‘mainstreaming’ of intol- erance (Banaji 2018: 8), the responses of Indian filmmakers have been more mixed. Our special issue examines how such filmmakers and their ensuing films have at times been critical of such ‘modi-fications’ in India and, at other times, complicit with such right-wing ideologies – sometimes, perhaps, criti- cal and complicit. From Rajkumar Hirani’s PK (2014) to the much anticipated and delayed Padmaavat (2018) of Sanjay Leela Bhansali, both popular Hindi cinema, aka Bollywood, and alternative Indian film forms have responded to the proliferation of right-wing Hindu ideologies in myriad, oftentimes conten- tious and frequently innovative ways. While the impact of right-wing Hindu groups on popular Hindi cinema can be traced back to the release of Mani Ratnam’s Bombay (1995), following the violence surrounding the destruc- tion of the Babri Masjid, this special issue seeks to examine the contemporary manifestations, and fraught interrelationships, of Hindutva politics and Hindi cinema – media during the time of Modi. Accordingly, this issue begins with Pallavi Rao’s study of Shree Narayan Singh’s Toilet: Ek Prem Katha (Toilet: A Love Story, 2017), which was made in collaboration with Prime Minister Modi’s ‘Swachch Bharat Abhiyan’ (‘Clean India Mission’). As Rao argues, this film, based on the true story of a woman who left her husband’s house because of the lack of an indoor toilet, attempts to align itself with the rationale of Modi’s project, which blames ignorance and the lack of access to toilets for the ensuing tendency of citizens to defecate in the open. Rao notes that, in doing so, the film crucially elides the atten- dant ideologies of (Hindu) caste purity implicit in such an eschewal of indoor toilets, even as the film’s Brahmin protagonist, played by Bollywood superstar Akshay Kumar, attempts to initiate change in his village through an appeal to the logic of Brahminical scriptures rather than through recourse to notions of sanitation and hygiene. Following this study comes Krupa Shandilya’s exami- nation of the tensions and controversies surrounding Bhansali’s Padmaavat, a lavish re-telling of the tale of the titular Rajput queen and attempts by the Muslim ruler Alauddin Khilji to capture her. This film and its director and lead female star, Deepika Padukone, were the targets of several protests by right- wing Hindu groups opposed to ‘love jihad’, in which such groups frame the 74 Studies in South Asian Film & Media 0_SAFM 9.2_Editorial_73-77.indd 74 2/22/19 11:43 AM Hindutva politics and South Asian cinema … Muslim man as a seducer and rapist of Hindu women. Shandilya argues that the film is animated by a similar discourse and revolves around a deferred scene of desire between the Muslim Khilji and Hindu Padmavati. In analysing the fetishistic scopophilia underlying Khilji’s gaze, Shandilya argues that such impulses, whether actual or imagined, are haunted by attendant fears of the Muslim man as a desirer of Hindu women and are correspondingly used to pathologically frame the former as a rapist, thus aligning with contemporary discourses proliferating in Modi’s India, such as those espoused by the BJP’s Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh, Yogi Adityanath, who, along with praising Trump’s proposed ban on Muslims, has claimed, ‘[i]f one Hindu girl marries a Muslim man, then we will take 100 Muslim girls in return’ (Safi 2017). The next entry in our special issue comes from Omar Ahmed, who exam- ines Rahul Dholakia’s film Raees (2017), starring Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan (hereafter SRK), himself the frequent target of attacks by right- wing Hindu groups who have invoked the star’s Muslim religion to question his allegiance to the Indian nation. In analysing Raees, which tells the story of a successful Muslim bootlegger in 1980s Gujarat, Ahmed claims the film utilizes the gangster genre as an apt rejoinder to Hindutva cultural politics. Focusing specifically on the film’s yatra, or Hindu procession, sequence, Ahmed closely examines the film’s use of political iconography and how its titular Muslim figure (played by SRK) simultaneously engages in violent resistance to such a Hindu processional, even as his character, in turn, is punished for his oppo- sition to the Hindu hegemony. Such a narrative similarly played out in real life when, after asserting there was ‘growing intolerance’ in India, SRK was accused by Hindu nationalists, including members of the BJP, of being a ‘Pakistani agent’ and his film Dilwale (Shetty, 2015) was, in turn, boycotted by several of these groups (Sahadevan 2015). Our following contribution, from Anandi Rao, is concerned with the Indo-Canadian documentary The World Before Her (2012) by filmmaker Nisha Pahuja. Although made in 2012, this documentary was released in India shortly after Modi’s election in 2014 and was criticized by some as a form of Hindutva propaganda, concerned as it is with a right-wing Hindu training camp for girls, the Durga Vahini. Through a close examination of the documentary’s queer female protagonist Prachi, Rao analyses the myriad moments of linguistic, translational and affective excess in the film to argue for a more nuanced understanding of how queer politics can operate in the midst of such right-wing Hindu ideologies. Such a positioning, Rao argues, allows the politics of queerness not only to be seen as subversive but also as potentially complicit in reinforcing Hindu hegemonic ideologies. In the following study, Claire Robison looks at the production of counter media productions by India’s International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON) communities, in response to films such as OMG (Shukla, 2012) and PK. While acknowledging the contemporary clashes between violent Hindutva forces and liberal civil society, Robison problematizes this political landscape through her examination of such counter media productions and publics, which she argues disavow the more violent protests undertaken in recent years and yet reflect middle-class support for Hindu religious prin- ciples, which are seen as coming under increasing attack from films such as PK. Robison closely analyses both the alternative media productions created by ISKCON communities and how such groups and their counter media productions intervene within the larger cultural debates surrounding Hindu religious principles in India today. www.intellectbooks.com 75 0_SAFM 9.2_Editorial_73-77.indd 75 2/22/19 11:43 AM Ajay Gehlawat Rounding out our issue are contributions from Ajay Gehlawat and Leela Khanna. In his study of Bhansali’s recent controversy-generating film, Gehlawat focuses on how Bhansali employs fascist aesthetics in Padmaavat to reinforce a Manichaean framing of Hindus and Muslims, in which the former are portrayed as noble figures and the latter as essentially barbaric.
Load more

Recommended publications
  • 0 0 0 0 Acasa Program Final For
    PROGRAM ABSTRACTS FOR THE 15TH TRIENNIAL SYMPOSIUM ON AFRICAN ART Africa and Its Diasporas in the Market Place: Cultural Resources and the Global Economy The core theme of the 2011 ACASA symposium, proposed by Pamela Allara, examines the current status of Africa’s cultural resources and the influence—for good or ill—of market forces both inside and outside the continent. As nation states decline in influence and power, and corporations, private patrons and foundations increasingly determine the kinds of cultural production that will be supported, how is African art being reinterpreted and by whom? Are artists and scholars able to successfully articulate their own intellectual and cultural values in this climate? Is there anything we can do to address the situation? WEDNESDAY, MARCH 23, 2O11, MUSEUM PROGRAM All Museum Program panels are in the Lenart Auditorium, Fowler Museum at UCLA Welcoming Remarks (8:30). Jean Borgatti, Steven Nelson, and Marla C. Berns PANEL I (8:45–10:45) Contemporary Art Sans Frontières. Chairs: Barbara Thompson, Stanford University, and Gemma Rodrigues, Fowler Museum at UCLA Contemporary African art is a phenomenon that transcends and complicates traditional curatorial categories and disciplinary boundaries. These overlaps have at times excluded contemporary African art from exhibitions and collections and, at other times, transformed its research and display into a contested terrain. At a moment when many museums with so‐called ethnographic collections are expanding their chronological reach by teasing out connections between traditional and contemporary artistic production, many museums of Euro‐American contemporary art are extending their geographic reach by globalizing their curatorial vision.
    [Show full text]
  • Understanding the Cultural Significance of Tawa'if and Rudali Through the Language of the Body in South Asian Cinema" (2011)
    Portland State University PDXScholar Dissertations and Theses Dissertations and Theses 1-1-2011 Performing Marginal Identities: Understanding the Cultural Significance of awaT 'if and Rudali Through the Language of the Body in South Asian Cinema Lise Danielle Hurlstone Portland State University Follow this and additional works at: https://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/open_access_etds Let us know how access to this document benefits ou.y Recommended Citation Hurlstone, Lise Danielle, "Performing Marginal Identities: Understanding the Cultural Significance of Tawa'if and Rudali Through the Language of the Body in South Asian Cinema" (2011). Dissertations and Theses. Paper 154. https://doi.org/10.15760/etd.154 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access. It has been accepted for inclusion in Dissertations and Theses by an authorized administrator of PDXScholar. Please contact us if we can make this document more accessible: [email protected]. Performing Marginal Identities: Understanding the Cultural Significance of Tawa‟if and Rudali Through the Language of the Body in South Asian Cinema by Lise Danielle Hurlstone A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Communication Thesis Committee: Priya Kapoor, Chair Charlotte Schell Clare Wilkinson-Weber Portland State University ©2011 Abstract This thesis examines the representation of the lives and performances of tawa‟if and rudali in South Asian cinema to understand their marginalization as performers, and their significance in the collective consciousness of the producers and consumers of Indian cultural artifacts. The critical textual analysis of six South Asian films reveals these women as caste-amorphous within the system of social stratification in India, and therefore captivating in the potential they present to achieve a complex and multi-faceted definition of culture.
    [Show full text]
  • Alternative Cinema(S) of South Asia/ Submission of Abstracts: 20Th August 2020
    H-Film Alternative Cinema(s) of South Asia/ Submission of Abstracts: 20th August 2020 Discussion published by Elif Sendur on Wednesday, July 22, 2020 GGSIP University, New Delhi, Shivaji University, Kolhapur contact email: [email protected] South Asia in Alternative Cinema(s) Concept Note South-Asian Cinema comprises the body of cinematic works produced in South–Asian Countries - India, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bangladesh, Maldives, Bhutan, Pakistan and Afghanistan. It offers an indispensable source for understanding the vicissitudes of the region addressing its social, political and cultural issues. It is significant to note that for South–Asian Cinema has been a site of national, religious, ethnic and cultural debates. These films are a valuable source to understand social, cultural and political dynamics of the region. Despite its seemingly common problems such as the issues of minorities, women, violence, fluid contact zones, disputed borders and challenges of modernity, the region is also known for its cultural, religious, ethnic and linguistic diversity. Though there are superficial similarities yet each country/region has its unique dynamics, social system, cultural practices and circumstances. The complex nature of the region demands critical engagement and nuanced understanding of its society, culture, politics and art. The present project shifts the focus from mainstream cinema to all kinds of alternative cinema(s). Since there are many forms of alternate cinematic expressions, it is proposed to call in alternate cinema(s). The present project invites original research papers/chapters from film scholars, film writers and filmmakers reflecting on Parallel Cinema or New Wave or New Cinema or Avant Garde in the past and Indies, new cinema or New (Middle) Cinemas, short films or experimental films in the post-liberalization era across South Asia to understand region specific issues.
    [Show full text]
  • The Rhetoric of Masculinity and Machismo in the Telugu Film Industry
    TAMING OF THE SHREW: THE RHETORIC OF MASCULINITY AND MACHISMO IN THE TELUGU FILM INDUSTRY By Vishnupriya Bhandaram Submitted to Central European University Department of Sociology and Social Anthropology In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts Supervisors: Vlad Naumescu Dorit Geva CEU eTD Collection Budapest, Hungary 2015 Abstract Common phrases around the discussion of the Telugu Film Industry are that it is sexist and male-centric. This thesis expounds upon the making and meaning of masculinity in the Telugu Film Industry. This thesis identifies and examines the various intangible mechanisms, processes and ideologies that legitimise gender inequality in the industry. By extending the framework of the inequality regimes in the workplace (Acker 2006), gendered organisation theory (Williams et. al 2012) to an informal and creative industry, this thesis establishes the cyclical perpetuation (Bourdieu 2001) of a gender order. Specifically, this research identifies the various ideologies (such as caste and tradition), habituated audiences, and portrayals of ideal masculinity as part of a feedback loop that abet, reify and reproduce gender inequality. CEU eTD Collection i Acknowledgements “It is not that there is no difference between men and women; it is how much difference that difference makes, and how we choose to frame it.” Siri Hustvedt, The Summer Without Men At the outset, I would like to thank my friends old and new, who patiently listened to my rants, fulminations and insecurities; and for being agreeable towards the unreasonable demands that I made of them in the weeks running up to the completion of this document.
    [Show full text]
  • A Semiotical Analysis of Bollywood's Film Pinjar
    IJACA | Vol.3 | Issue 1 | June 2020 | Pages 43-53 DEPICTION OF POST The concept of Post-colonialism has been broadly used, not only in South Asian society but around COLONIALISM IN SOUTH the globe to study the relationship between the ASIAN CINEMA: A colonizer and the colonized ones. Like many SEMIOTICAL ANALYSIS European and African countries, British ruled the OF BOLLYWOOD’S FILM Indian Sub-continent for centuries. The film Pinjar PINJAR is based on a novel. It portrays the diversity of cultures, creeds, religions and traditions reflecting the era before and during the partition of Indian sub-continent. It enlightens many literary aspects Hamza Hassan and critical angles. This study revolves around this Universiti Malaysia Sarawak film, focusing on post-colonialism especially the partition era of 1947. Pierce’s Model of Semiotics, as a major frameworK has been adopted to draw Teo Miaw Lee Universiti Malaysia Sarawak all post-colonial aspects from the film Pinjar. Keywords: Film Studies, Indian Sub-continent, Post-colonialism, Semiotics, South Asian Cinema Corresponding Author [email protected] 43 1. INTRODUCTION Post-colonialism is defined as the study of affiliation between the colonizers and the colonized nations (Laurie, Stark, & WalKer, 2019). Post-colonialism consists of different concepts of feminism, orientalism, history, sociology, human geography, anthropology, political science, linguistics, philosophy, film, architecture, Marxism, theological and religious studies and literature (Shands, 2008). Marxist scholar ViveK Chibber from India presented the logics of postcolonial theory in his booK, The Debate on Postcolonial Theory and the Specter of Capital (2013). He focused on the disproved historical claims made by the Subaltern studies scholars like Ranajit Guha.
    [Show full text]
  • SAMCS 2021 Program with Youtube Links
    South Asian Media and Cultural Studies Conference, February 4-6, 2021 Schedule, streaming and recording links, and times in the recordings for sessions. DAY 1: Thursday, February 4, 2021 (8:00 am to 1:00 pm eastern time) Link for YouTube Stream/ Recording: https://youtu.be/tuab1Y3j7Fk 8:00AM - 8:30AM (The opening session starts at 00:11:11 on the recording) Welcome, Vaibhav Diwanji, School of Communication, Florida State University Welcome Address: Dr. Stephen McDowell, Florida State University 1 Dr. Larry Dennis, Dean, College of Communication and Information, Florida State University Dr. Cynthia Green, Director, Center for Global Engagement, Florida State University Dr. Fr Biju Chacko, CHRIST (Deemed to be University) 8:45AM - 10:00 AM (The keynote is at 00:55:00 on the recording) KEYNOTE & "Anderson-Ashby Lectureship on Journalism & Public Affairs” Lecture/ Keynote Speaker Introduction: Dr. John Mayo, Florida State University KEYNOTE ADDRESS: Dr. Deb Aikat, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, USA (“Media Platforms for Pride and Prejudice: Triumphs, Trials and Tribulations for Journalism and Public Affairs in South Asia and Beyond”) 10:15AM - 11:30 AM (The journalism panel begins at 2:26:00) “Journalism Beyond Borders” Panel Leader: Dr. Awais Saleem, Lamar University, USA Mr. Raza Rumi, Director-Park Center for Independent Media, Ithaca College, USA Dr. Kailash Koushik, CHRIST (Deemed to be University), India (“Newscaste: A Qualitative Study On Working Conditions Of Dalit Journalists In India”) 11:45AM - 1:00 PM ( The music and performance panel starts at 3:55.00) “Musical/Performative Communication Beyond Borders” Panel Chair: Dr. Anup Kumar Prof.
    [Show full text]
  • Tamil Cinema
    Centre for the Study of Communication and Culture Volume 28 (2009) No. 4 IN THIS ISSUE Tamil Cinema Perianayagam Jesudoss Salesian Pontifical University, Rome AQUARTERLY REVIEW OF COMMUNICATION RESEARCH ISSN: 0144-4646 Communication Research Trends Table of Contents Volume 28 (2009) Number 4 http://cscc.scu.edu Editor’s Introduction . 3 Published four times a year by the Centre for the Study of Tamil Cinema . 4 Communication and Culture (CSCC), sponsored by the 1. Introduction . 4 California Province of the Society of Jesus. A. Cinema as an aesthetic art . 4 Copyright 2009. ISSN 0144-4646 B. Indian cinema . 5 C. Cinema in Tamil Nadu . 5 Editor: William E. Biernatzki, S.J. 2. Origins of Tamil Cinema . 6 Managing Editor: Paul A. Soukup, S.J. A. Language . 6 B. Drama . 7 C. Music in Tamil drama . 7 Subscription: D. Loud voice culture in Tamil cinema . 8 Annual subscription (Vol. 28) US$50 3. History of Tamil Cinema . 8 A. Extent of Tamil cinema . 8 Payment by check, MasterCard, Visa or US$ preferred. B. A brief history of Tamil cinema . 9 For payments by MasterCard or Visa, send full account C. Technology and industry . 10 number, expiration date, name on account, and signature. D. Kollywood: Center of the Tamil cinema industry . 11 Checks and/or International Money Orders (drawn on 4. Film Distribution . 12 USA banks; for non-USA banks, add $10 for handling) 5. Cinema Production as Cultural Commodity should be made payable to Communication Research in Tamil Nadu . 13 Trends and sent to the managing editor 6. Consumption . 14 Paul A.
    [Show full text]
  • Digital Media, New Cinemas, and the Global South Symposium
    HUMANITIES INNOV ATION CENTER DIGITAL MEDIA, NEW CINEMAS, AND THE GLOBAL SOUTH Exploring the creative and tactical integration of digital media and new technologies in the global south FRIDAY, APRIL 4 INTERNATIONAL CENTER ROOM 303 9:15 – 11:00 AM Latin American and South Asian Cinema and Media COURTNEY DONOGHUE Oakland University DENNIS HANLON University of St Andrews CATHERINE BENAMOU UC Irvine Moderator: Lily Woodruff - Art, Art History, & Design, MSU 11:15 AM – 1:00 PM North African, African, Middle Eastern, and US Minorities Media 7:00 PM FRIDAY ARTIST TALK: EMEKA OGBOH PETER LIMBRICK UCSC MARY BELTRAN University of Texas JO ELLEN FAIR University of Wisconsin Digital media has changed the everyday lives of Moderator: Najib Hourani – Department of Anthropology, MSU millions of people, yet the focus on these recent technological developments tends to emphasize the 2:00 – 3:45 PM South Asian Cinema and Media SWARNAVEL PILLAI Michigan State University But, what about the lives of those in first-world nations. AMIT RAI University of London, Queen Mary impacts of new technology across the digital divide? How is it that ANASTUP BASU University of Illinois digital media, mobile technologies, and new cinematic forms of Moderator: Karin Zitzewitz – Art, Art History, and Design, MSU representation have changed the production and experience of art, economy, and culture in the Global South? 4:00 – 5:00 PM Keynote Address: “The Pirate Focusing on contemporary developments in digital media, and Kingdom: Media infrastructure and its poetics especially film and the arts, this symposium will explore the creative in the Global South. and tactical integration of digital media and new technologies RAVI SUNDARAM Centre for the Study of Developing Societies, Delhi through such diverse topics as new African cinema, media creation Moderator: Jyotsna Singh – Department of English, MSU and distribution in South East Asia and South America, and cinemas that engage a minoritarian viewpoint regardless of its geopolitical 7:00 PM Artist talk: Emeka Ogboh origins.
    [Show full text]
  • South Asian Film & Television 16 + Guide
    SOUTH ASIAN FILM & TELEVISION 16 + GUIDE www.bfi.org.uk/imagineasia This and other bfi National Library 16+ guides are available from http://www.bfi.org.uk/16+ IMAGINEASIA - SOUTH ASIAN FILM & TELEVISION Contents Page IMPORTANT NOTE ........................................................................................ 1 GENERAL INFORMATION ............................................................................. 2 APPROACHES TO RESEARCH, by Samantha Bakhurst.................................. 4 INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................ 6 BANGLADESH............................................................................................... 7 Focus on Filmmakers: Zahir Raihan................................................................. 9 BHUTAN, NEPAL & TIBET.............................................................................. 9 PAKISTAN..................................................................................................... 10 Focus on Filmmakers: Jamil Dehlavi ................................................................ 16 SRI LANKA .................................................................................................... 17 Focus on Filmmakers: Lester James Peries ..................................................... 20 INDIA · General References............................................................................ 22 · Culture, Society and Film Theory ......................................................... 33 · Film
    [Show full text]
  • South Asian Feminist Cinema WAGS 69/ASLC 52/FAMS 58 Spring 2011 Wednesday 2:00-4:30Pm Converse 308
    South Asian Feminist Cinema WAGS 69/ASLC 52/FAMS 58 Spring 2011 Wednesday 2:00-4:30pm Converse 308 Krupa Shandilya, phone: X5464 Email: [email protected] 30E Johnson Chapel Office hours: Tuesday/Thursday 11:30am-12:30pm How do we define the word ―feminism‖? Can the term be used to define cinematic texts outside the Euro-American world? In this course we will study a range of issues that have been integral to feminist theory--- the body, domesticity, same sex desire, gendered constructions of the nation, feminist utopias and dystopias ---through a range of South Asian cinematic texts. Through our viewings and readings we will consider whether the term ―feminist‖ can be applied to these texts and we will experiment with new theoretical lenses for exploring these films. Films will range from Satyajit Ray‘s classic masterpiece Charulata to Gurinder Chadha‘s trendy diasporic film, Bend it like Beckham. Required Films: All films will be screened in Fayerweather 113 Satyajit Ray, Charulata (Mon. Feb 7th 5pm) Aparna Sen, Paroma (Mon. Feb 14th 5pm) Muzaffar Ali, Umrao Jaan (Mon. Feb 21st 5pm) Kamal Amrohi, Pakeezah (Mon. Feb. 28th 5pm) Madhur Bhandarkar, Fashion (Mon. March 7th 5pm) Sanjay Leela Bhansali, Devdas (Mon. March 21st 5pm) Vishal Bhardwaj, Ishqiya (Mon. March 28th 5pm) Santosh Sivan, The Terrorist (Mon. April 4th 5pm) Manish Jha, Matrubhoomi (Mon April 11th 5pm) Deepa Mehta, Fire (Mon. April 18th 5pm) Gurinder Chadha, Bend it like Beckham (Mon. May 2nd 5pm) Recommended Films: (available via streaming on E-reserve) Amit Shimin, Chak De! India Madhu Bhandarkar, Corporate J.P.
    [Show full text]
  • Bibliography
    Bibliography This is a compre hens ive bibli o graphy of the sources used for the articles in this volume. Wherever authors have used differ ent editions of the same primary source, these are listed in the same entry, separ ated by a semi colon. When differ ent editions have the same title, this title has not been repeated in the entry. Entries which can be considered both a primary and a second ary source appear under both categor ies. Each bibli o graphic entry is followed by the initials of the author who has used it, in square brack ets, as follows: Introduction: Chapter 1: Zulfikar Hirji [ZH – Intr.]; Chapter 2: Dmitry Bondarev [DB]; Chapter 3: Tal Tamari [TT]; Chapter 4: Farouk Topan [FT]; Chapter 5: Gerard C. van de Bruinhorst [GB]; Chapter 6: Ryan Skinner [RS]; Chapter 7: Ruba Kana’an [RK]; Chapter 8: Adeline Masquelier [AM]; Chapter 9: Kjersti Larsen [KL]; Chapter 10: Susan Rasmussen [SR]; Chapter 11: Joseph Hill [JH]; Chapter 12: Andrea Brigaglia [AB]; Chapter 13: Zulfikar Hirji [ZH]. Manuscripts Abd Allāh b. Fūdī [=Abdallah ͂an Fodio]. iyā al- tawīl fī macānī al- tanzīl. MS Arabe 5509, Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Paris. Fols. 1b–337b and 339a–384b [Incomplete copy]. [TT] Borno Qur’an. MS.1YM [‘Yerima Mustafa manu script’ or ‘Geidam manu script’], private collec tion of Yerima Mustafa Mukhtar, the current Waziri of Borno, Maiduguri, Nigeria. Complete, 362 folios. Old Kanembu Islamic Manuscripts, SOAS Digital Collections, SOAS University of London. [DB] ——. MS.2ShK [‘Shetima Kawo manu script’], lost; formerly in the posses sion of the Shetima Kawo family in Maiduguri, Nigeria.
    [Show full text]
  • Preliminary Program for the 15Th Triennial Symposium on African Art
    PRELIMINARY PROGRAM FOR THE 15TH TRIENNIAL SYMPOSIUM ON AFRICAN ART To panel chairs and presenters, for any time conflicts, corrections, omissions, and withdrawals, please contact program chair Doran H. Ross at [email protected]. Panel and paper abstracts will be posted on the ACASA website around February 21, 2011, so please send any changes to abstracts and the order of papers before February 17, 2011. Room as - signments will follow after revisions. WEDNESDAY, MARCH 23, 2O11, MUSEUM PROGRAM PANEL I (8:30-10:30) Contemporary Art Sans Frontières . Chairs: Barbara Thompson, Stanford University, and Gemma Rodrigues, Fowler Museum at UCLA Critical Objects: Museum Habitus and the Problem of Category , Allyson Purpura, University of Illinois at Urbana- Champaign Africa, Meet Contemporary—Contemporary, Meet Africa; or, Integrating Regional and Contemporary without Sac - rifice . Kinsey Katchka, North Carolina Museum of Art Unbounded: Contemporary Arts of Africa in Global Dialogue , Christa Clarke, Newark Museum Curating in the Twenty-First Century , Tumelo Mosaka, University of Illinois Dismantling the House , Allan deSouza, San Francisco Art Institute PANEL II (10:45-12:45) To Collect or Not to Collect, to Exhibit or Not to Exhibit: Issues of Provenance and Patri - mony . Chair: Kristina Van Dyke, The Menil Collection To See or Not to See , John Picton, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London Arts of the Benue River Valley : A Case for Inclusion and Transparency , Marla C. Berns, Fowler Museum at UCLA The Case of Malian Terra-Cottas , Kristina Van Dyke, The Menil Collection Museums, Provenance, and African Cultural Patrimony: A Proposal for Equal Access , Sylvester Ogbechie, Univer - sity of California, Santa Barbara PANEL III (2:15-4:15) Mapping New Curatorial Futures for Tradition-Based African Art .
    [Show full text]