The Performance of Nationalism

Erscheinungsjahr 2018
ISBN: 978-1-108-46856-5
Verlag: Cambridge University Press

Buch, Englisch, 272 Seiten, Format (B × H): 152 mm x 229 mm, Gewicht: 402 g

Reihe: Cambridge Studies in Modern Theatre

Imagine the patriotic camaraderie of national day parades. How crucial is performance for the sustenance of the nation? The Performance of Nationalism considers the formation of the Indian and Pakistani nation, in the wake of the most violent chapter of its history: the partition of the subcontinent. In the process, Jisha Menon offers a fresh analysis of nationalism from the perspective of performance. Menon recuperates the manifold valences of 'mimesis' as aesthetic representation, as the constitution of a community of witnesses, and as the mimetic relationality that underlies the encounter between India and Pakistan. The particular performances considered here range from Wagah border ceremonies to the partition theatre of Asghar Wajahat, Kirti Jain, M. K. Raina, and the cinema of Ritwik Ghatak and M. S. Sathyu. By pointing to the tropes of twins, doubles, and doppelgängers that suffuse these performances, this study troubles the idea of two insular, autonomous nation-states of India and Pakistan. In the process, Menon recovers mimetic modes of thinking that unsettle the reified categories of identity politics.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Menon, Jisha

Fachgebiete

• Sozialwissenschaften Soziologie | Soziale Arbeit Spezielle Soziologie Soziologie von Migranten und Minderheiten
• Sozialwissenschaften Ethnologie | Volkskunde Volkskunde Minderheiten, Interkulturelle & Multikulturelle Fragen
• Geisteswissenschaften Theater- und Filmwissenschaft | Andere Darstellende Künste Theaterwissenschaft

Inhaltsverzeichnis

1. Introduction; 2. Bordering on drama: the performance of politics and the politics of performance; 3. Ghatak's cinema and the discoherence of the Bengal partition; 4. The poetics and politics of accommodation; 5. Somatic texts and the gender of partition; 6. Kashmir: hospitality and the 'unfinished business' of partition.

Über Autor(innen)

Menon, Jisha
Jisha Menon is Assistant Professor of Drama at Stanford University, California.