Women Performers in Bengal and Bangladesh

Description

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.

About the editor:

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

"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

Table of contents

Introduction 'Home': The Repository of Polar Play-acting and Challenges of Circularity to Women's Acting out, Manujendra Kundu
1:Footprints of the Outliers: Female Performers in Colonial Eastern Bengal, Syed Jamil Ahmed
2:The 'Fallen Women' of Culture: An Overview of Bengali Performers from the Dark Chambers of Bengal (1795-1930s), Devajit Bandyopadhyay
3:Feminine Experiences in the Bengali Stage-From patita to bhadramahila, and to Today's New patita, Sumanta Banerjee
4:Actresses in a Period of Transition (1947-1952): Connecting Actress Stories with Their Histories, Bishnupriya Dutt
5:Women in Search of a Play: Theatricality and Gender, From the IPTA to the Naxalbari Movement, Mallarika Sinha Roy
6:Entangled in Performance: Women in Group and Commercial/Professional Theatre in Kolkata (1940s-2000s), Kuntal Mukhopadhyay & Manujendra Kundu
7:Labour, Infrastructure, Division of Labour and the Position of the New Generation Women Performers in Kolkata, Arijita Mukhopadhyay
8:Survival, Agency and the Politics of Compromise: The Contemporary Stage and Screen Actresses in Kolkata, Madhubanti De
9:Can Female Performers be Heard?: Her Stories in Theatre of Bangladesh (1950s-2010s), Samina Luthfa
10:Desire, Decadence and A "Dirty" Dancer: A Conversation with Miss Shefali, Aishika Chakraborty
11:'Extending' Uday Shankar's Dance Pedagogy?: Articulation of Agency in Amala Shankar's Work, Urmimala Sarkar Munsi
12:Life of Jatra Actresses: Stories of Unending Struggle (1950s-2010s), Prabhatkumar Das
13:The Enigmatic World of Sadhansanginis, Sudhir Chakravarti
14:Bonds of Labour: Nachni Women as the Dancer in the Margin, Urmimala Sarkar Munsi
15:Poverty to Sustenance: The Respectable/Shameful Journey of Women Performers of Sundarban, Poulomi Das