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Women Performers as Subjects in Popular Theatre: Tamasha and Nautanki

Women Performers as Subjects in Popular Theatre: Tamasha and Nautanki

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Women Performers as Subjects in Popular Theatre: Tamasha and Nautanki
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<strong>CENTRE FOR WOMEN'S STUDIES, JNU</strong> a Seminar on <strong>Women Performers as Subjects in Popular Theatre: Tamasha and Nautanki</strong> by <strong>Dr. Lata Singh</strong> (Associate Professor, Center for Women's Studies, JNU) Date: <strong>11 August 2015</strong> This presentation will forefront women performers as subjects in historiography. Women performers have remained on the margin of both mainstream and subaltern historiography. The presentation instead of merely charting their artistic topography tries to locate them in larger social, cultural and historical context. It tries to map their artistic aspirations and commitment to performance, their journeys and struggles, the troubled histories of their frustrations and endeavours, their strains and tensions as they travelled the varied worlds of the personal and professional. Till date class, caste and patriarchal prejudice marks the Tamasha and Nautanki women performers as 'vulgar' and veiled 'prostitute' or 'loose' women. The presentation will also move beyond the paradigm of art and work binary, challenging the middle class evocation of performance as a temple of art. Invisibilizing the women performers as workers forecloses their struggles and contestations.

A warm welcome to the modified and updated website of the Centre for East Asian Studies. The East Asian region has been at the forefront of several path-breaking changes since 1970s beginning with the redefining the development architecture with its State-led development model besides emerging as a major region in the global politics and a key hub of the sophisticated technologies. The Centre is one of the thirteen Centres of the School of International Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi that provides a holistic understanding of the region.

Initially, established as a Centre for Chinese and Japanese Studies, it subsequently grew to include Korean Studies as well. At present there are eight faculty members in the Centre. Several distinguished faculty who have now retired include the late Prof. Gargi Dutt, Prof. P.A.N. Murthy, Prof. G.P. Deshpande, Dr. Nranarayan Das, Prof. R.R. Krishnan and Prof. K.V. Kesavan. Besides, Dr. Madhu Bhalla served at the Centre in Chinese Studies Programme during 1994-2006. In addition, Ms. Kamlesh Jain and Dr. M. M. Kunju served the Centre as the Documentation Officers in Chinese and Japanese Studies respectively.

The academic curriculum covers both modern and contemporary facets of East Asia as each scholar specializes in an area of his/her interest in the region. The integrated course involves two semesters of classes at the M. Phil programme and a dissertation for the M. Phil and a thesis for Ph. D programme respectively. The central objective is to impart an interdisciplinary knowledge and understanding of history, foreign policy, government and politics, society and culture and political economy of the respective areas. Students can explore new and emerging themes such as East Asian regionalism, the evolving East Asian Community, the rise of China, resurgence of Japan and the prospects for reunification of the Korean peninsula. Additionally, the Centre lays great emphasis on the building of language skills. The background of scholars includes mostly from the social science disciplines; History, Political Science, Economics, Sociology, International Relations and language.

Several students of the centre have been recipients of prestigious research fellowships awarded by Japan Foundation, Mombusho (Ministry of Education, Government of Japan), Saburo Okita Memorial Fellowship, Nippon Foundation, Korea Foundation, Nehru Memorial Fellowship, and Fellowship from the Chinese and Taiwanese Governments. Besides, students from Japan receive fellowship from the Indian Council of Cultural Relations.