Dancing Bodies of Devotion

Fluid Gestures in Bharata Natyam

Katherine C. Zubko (Autor)

Buch | Hardcover

270 Seiten

2014
Lexington Books (Verlag)
978-0-7391-8728-9 (ISBN)

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Dancing Bodies of Devotion: Fluid Gestures in Bharata Natyam examines how Bharata Natyam, a traditionally Hindu storytelling dance form, moves across religious boundaries through both incorporating choreography on Buddhist, Christian, Muslim, and Jain themes and the pluralistic identities of participants. Dancers traverse religious boundaries by reformulating an aesthetic foundation based on performative rather than solely textual understandings of rasa, conventionally defined as a formula for how to physically craft emotion on stage. Through the ethnographic case studies of this volume, dancers of Bharata Natyam innovatively demonstrate how the rasa of devotion (bhakti rasa), surprisingly absent from classic dance-related texts, serves as the pivotal framework for expanding on their own interreligious thematic and interpretive possibilities. In contemporary Bharata Natyam, bhakti rasa is not just about enhancing religious experience; instead, these dancers choreographically adapt various religious identities and ideas in order to emphasize pluralistic cultural and ethical dimensions in their work. Through the dancing body, multiple religious and secular interpretations fluidly co-exist.

Katherine C. Zubko is assistant professor of religious studies at the University of North Carolina Asheville.

Part I: Religious Bodies
Chapter 1: Rasa: A Taste of the Divine
Chapter 2: Balasaraswati and Krishna Ni Begane Baro
Chapter 3: Francis Barboza and Christian Themes
Conclusion: Bhakti Rasa: A Re-Personalized Aesthetic of Devotion

Part II: Cultural Bodies
Chapter 4: Rasa and Bhakti as Indian Categories
Chapter 5: Dhananjayans’ Sanghamitrā
Chapter 6: Kalai Kaviri’s Gāyatrī Mantra
Conclusion: Is there an Indian way of dancing devotion?

Part III: Ethical Bodies
Chapter 7: Nāṭya as Visual Education and the Ethics of Rasa
Chapter 8: Dhananjayans’ Stree (Woman)
Chapter 9: Monica Cooley’s Subhāsitam: Morality Tales of India and Bhagavad Gītā Śabdam
Conclusion: An Ethics of Bhakti Rasa: Performance of a Moral Mood

Part IV: Pluralistic Bodies
Chapter 10: Unity and Multiplicity of Rasa
Chapter 11: Malini Srinivasan and Sufi Qawwāli
Chapter 12: Tehreema Mitha and Ratt Jaga (The Vigil)
Conclusion: Revisiting “Unity in Diversity”

Conclusion
Glossary
Illustrated Glossary of Gestures

Reihe/Serie	Studies in Body and Religion
Verlagsort	Lanham, MD
Sprache	englisch
Maße	161 x 236 mm
Gewicht	553 g
Themenwelt	Sachbuch/Ratgeber ► Sport ► Tanzen / Tanzsport
	Geisteswissenschaften ► Geschichte ► Regional- / Ländergeschichte
	Geisteswissenschaften ► Religion / Theologie ► Hinduismus
ISBN-10	0-7391-8728-7 / 0739187287
ISBN-13	978-0-7391-8728-9 / 9780739187289
Zustand	Neuware