Performance has emerged as an important concept in the field of art, culture, media, communication and socio-anthropological studies. This thesis examines the ' Indian folk performance' from a performance studies perspective, examining performance as that which arises out of the labouring bodies and lived experiences in Indian society. Such performances are embedded in 'everyday lives, struggles, and labour of different classes, castes, and gender' (Rege 2002). These performances can be considered as performances of cultural labour. Performances of cultural labour are recognized by the centrality of performance, the materiality of labouring bodies, and the integration of various al1 forms. Drawing on an understanding derived from the cultural performances of the Indian labouring lower-caste communities, the thesis attempts to provide a conceptual framework for understanding Indian folk culture and performances. For theoretical approaches, I have drawn from Dwight Conquergood's idea of performance studies as a radical intervention (2002) and Ngugi wa Thiong'o's concept of performance (2007) as well as interdisciplinary and integrated approaches to art and culture with a critical ethnography. Performance studies approach with a critical ethnography shows a great potential in such research because if performance stands for identity, then it also stands for the embodiment of oppressed identities, genres and struggles. While performance here functions as an cpistemic as well as an analytical tool, critical ethnography provides an 'ethical responsibility' to address processes of hidden injustices (Madison 2005)
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:603539 |
| Date | January 2013 |
| Creators | Singh, Brahma Prakash |
| Publisher | University of London |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
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