Sakuntala - Texts, Readings, Histories

Erscheinungsjahr 2011
ISBN: 978-0-231-15654-7
Verlag: Columbia University Press

Buch, Englisch, 296 Seiten, Format (B × H): 144 mm x 217 mm, Gewicht: 450 g

The figure of Sakuntala appears in many forms throughout South Asian literature, most famously in the Mahabharata and in Kalidisa's fourth-century Sanskrit play, Sakuntala and the Ring of Recollection. In these two texts, Sakuntala undergoes a critical transformation, relinquishing her assertiveness and autonomy to become the quintessentially submissive woman, revealing much about the performance of Hindu femininity that would come to dominate South Asian culture. Through a careful analysis of sections from Sakuntala and their various iterations in different contexts, Romila Thapar explores the interactions between literature and history, culture and gender, that frame the development of this canonical figure, as well as a distinct conception of female identity.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Thapar, Romila

Fachgebiete

• Sozialwissenschaften Soziologie | Soziale Arbeit Soziale Gruppen/Soziale Themen Gender Studies, Geschlechtersoziologie
• Interdisziplinäres Wissenschaften Wissenschaft und Gesellschaft | Kulturwissenschaften Kulturwissenschaften

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Preface1. Preliminaries2. The Narrative from the Mahabharata3. The Abhijñana-sakuntalam of KalidasaSakuntala and the Ring of Recollection the play by Kalidasa4. Popular and high culture as historical parallels5. Adaptations: another popular tradition and its role in another court6. Translations: Orientalism, German romanticism and the image of Sakuntala7. Translation: colonial views8. Sakuntala from the perspective of middle-class nationalism9. ConclusionEndnotes

Über Autor(innen)

Romila Thapar specializes in early Indian history and is professor emerita in history at Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. In 1983 she was elected general president of the Indian History Congress and in 1999 a corresponding fellow of the British Academy. Her best known works are Ashoka and the Decline of the Mauryas, From Language to State, Interpreting Early India, and Time as a Metaphor of History: Early India.