1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910495877903321

Autore

Hansen Kathryn

Titolo

Grounds for play : the Nauṭaṅkī theatre of North India / / Kathryn Hansen

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Berkeley, : University of California Press, c1992

ISBN

0-520-91088-5

0-585-13064-7

Edizione

[“A Philip E. Lilienthal Book” , Reprint 2020]

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (xvii, 367 p. ) : ill., music ;

Collana

ACLS Humanities E-Book

Disciplina

792/.0954/1

Soggetti

Nautanki

Folk drama, Hindi - History and criticism

Theater - India

Nautanki - History and criticism - India

Folk drama, Hindi

Theater

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references (p. 337-350) and index.

Nota di contenuto

Front matter -- Contents -- List of Illustrations -- Acknowledgments -- Note on Transliteration -- Introduction -- 1. The Name of the NautankI -- 2. Situating an Intermediary Theatre -- 3. The Landscape of Premodern Performance -- 4. Authors, Akhāṛās, and Texts -- 5. Kings, Warriors, and Bandits -- 6. Paradigms of Pure Love -- 7. Women's Lives and Deaths -- 8. Melody, Meter, and the Musical Medium -- 9. Conclusion -- Epilogue -- The Kidnapping of Indal (lndal haran) -- Appendixes -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Index

Sommario/riassunto

The nautanki performances of northern India entertain their audiences with often ribald and profane stories. Rooted in the peasant society of pre-modern India, this theater vibrates with lively dancing, pulsating drumbeats, and full-throated singing. In Grounds for Play, Kathryn Hansen draws on field research to describe the different elements of nautanki performance: music, dance, poetry, popular story lines, and written texts. She traces the social history of the form and explores the play of meanings within nautanki narratives, focusing on the ways important social issues such as political authority, community identity,



and gender differences are represented in these narratives.    Unlike other styles of Indian theater, the nautanki does not draw on the pan-Indian religious epics such as the Ramayana or the Mahabharata for its subjects. Indeed, their storylines tend to center on the vicissitudes of stranded heroines in the throes of melodramatic romance. Whereas nautanki performers were once much in demand, live performances now are rare and nautanki increasingly reaches its audiences through electronic media--records, cassettes, films, television. In spite of this change, the theater form still functions as an effective conduit in the cultural flow that connects urban centers and the hinterland in an ongoing process of exchange.