Desi Divas: Political Activism in South Asian American Cultural Performances

by Christine L. Garlough

Overview

How South Asian American women have found expression and power in festival dances and theater

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781496853691
Publisher:	University Press of Mississippi
Publication date:	11/15/2024
Pages:	244
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.00(d)

About the Author

Christine L. Garlough, Middleton, Wisconsin, is assistant professor at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, in the department of gender and women's studies, the folklore program, and the Center for South Asia.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments ix

Chapter 1 Toward Acknowledgment: Care in Diasporic Performances 3

Chapter 2 Performing South Asian American Histories 43

Chapter 3 National Recognition and Community Acknowledgment 73

Chapter 4 A Future in Relation to the Other 103

Chapter 5 Cultural Activism and Sexuality in Feminist Performance 145

Chapter 6 Intertwining Folklore and Rhetoric: Cultural Performance, Acknowledgment, and Social Justice 181

Notes 197

References 211

Index 227

Editorial Reviews

"Christine Garlough's Desi Divas is an intelligent and sensitive examination of South Asian women using performances of acknowledgement and caring to address their cultural exploitation. By coupling ethnographic and critical methods, she offers a ground level view that captures inequalities of gender and denial of human rights and the lived practices within a non-western perspective that combat them. Her deft intersection of theory and method currently informing research in folklore, performance, and vernacular rhetoric is a timely contribution to the liveliest issues currently animating humanistic research. Garlough provides a model for interdisciplinary critical cultural scholarship and its capacity to open our view to what lies behind the gentle violence of everyday life."

—Gerard A. Hauser, College Professor Emeritus of Distinction, University of Colorado Boulder

"Christine Garlough's original scholarship and interdisciplinary approach augments feminist and drama scholarship on how political performances work towards social justice, and even social change. Such performances, argues Desi Divas, play a vital role in activist work that 'creates opportunities' in Garlough's words, 'for ethical listening and the possibility of social action on the part of diverse audiences.' Garlough effectively explores a wholly original idea: namely, the ethics and politics of care as 'a critical social practice . . . a communicative effort that encourages a sense of connection and compassion.' Desi Divas is a compelling text for scholars of Feminist Theory, Ethnic Studies, South Asian Studies, Performance Studies, and Diaspora Studies."

—Ketu H. Katrak, professor in the Department of Drama at University of California, Irvine

From the Publisher