{"product_id":"unfinished-gestures-devadasis-memory-and-modernity-in-south-india-paperback","title":"Unfinished Gestures: Devadasis, Memory, and Modernity in South India - Paperback","description":"\u003cp\u003eby \u003cb\u003eDavesh Soneji\u003c\/b\u003e (Author)\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003ci\u003eUnfinished Gestures\u003c\/i\u003e presents the social and cultural history of courtesans in South India who are generally called \u003ci\u003edevadasis\u003c\/i\u003e, focusing on their encounters with colonial modernity in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Following a hundred years of vociferous social reform, including a 1947 law that criminalized their lifestyles, the women in \u003ci\u003edevadasis \u003c\/i\u003ecommunities contend with severe social stigma and economic and cultural disenfranchisement. Adroitly combining ethnographic fieldwork with historical research, Davesh Soneji provides a comprehensive portrait of these marginalized women and unsettles received ideas about relations among them, the aesthetic roots of their performances, and the political efficacy of social reform in their communities. Poignantly narrating the history of these women, Soneji argues for the recognition of aesthetics and performance as a key form of subaltern self-presentation and self-consciousness. Ranging over courtly and private salon performances of music and dance by \u003ci\u003edevadasi\u003c\/i\u003es in the nineteenth century, the political mobilization of \u003ci\u003edevadasis \u003c\/i\u003eidentity in the twentieth century, and the post-reform lives of women in these communities today, \u003ci\u003eUnfinished Gestures\u003c\/i\u003e charts the historical fissures that lie beneath cultural modernity in South India.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ch3\u003eAuthor Biography\u003c\/h3\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eDavesh Soneji\u003c\/b\u003e is associate professor of South Asian religions at McGill University. He is coeditor of \u003ci\u003ePerforming Pasts: Reinventing the Arts in Modern South India\u003c\/i\u003e and editor of \u003ci\u003eBharatanatyam: A Reader\u003c\/i\u003e.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eNumber of Pages:\u003c\/strong\u003e 312\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eDimensions:\u003c\/strong\u003e 0.7 x 8.8 x 5.9 IN\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eIllustrated:\u003c\/strong\u003e Yes\u003c\/div\u003e\u003cdiv\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003ePublication Date:\u003c\/strong\u003e January 15, 2012\u003c\/div\u003e","brand":"Books by splitShops","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47454472208562,"sku":"9780226768106","price":61.2,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0770\/3891\/1666\/files\/5f3eacd10cc2d0841067b15d1157968c.webp?v=1778851870","url":"https:\/\/box.dadyminds.org\/products\/unfinished-gestures-devadasis-memory-and-modernity-in-south-india-paperback","provider":"DADYMINDS BOX","version":"1.0","type":"link"}