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Ashes of Immortality
"At last, she arrives at the fatal end of the plank . . . and, with her hands crossed over her chest, falls straight downward, suspended for a moment in the air before being devoured by the burning pit that awaits her. . . ." This grisly 1829 account by Pierre Dubois demonstrates the usual European response to the Hindu custom of satis sacrificing themselves on the funeral pyres of their husbands—horror and revulsion. Yet to those of the Hindu faith, not least the satis themselves, this act signals the sati's sacredness and spiritual power. Ashes of Immortality attempts to see the satis through Hindu eyes, providing an extensive experiential and psychoanalytic account of ritual self-sacrifice and self-mutilation in South Asia. Based on fifteen years of fieldwork in northern India, where the state-banned practice of sati reemerged in the 1970s, as well as extensive textual analysis, Weinberger-Thomas constructs a radically new interpretation of satis. She shows that their self-immolation transcends gender, caste and class, region and history, representing for the Hindus a path to immortality.
Veiled Encounters
Travel narratives were the principal source of knowledge about the lands of the Near East and the Indian Ocean Basin in 17th-century France. Claiming the authority of first-hand observation, they paradoxically rely for their legitimization on the tropes of an established literary tradition. The status of these texts remained ambiguous, not least because of their anecdotal depictions of great riches, brutality or sexual promise. Drawing on the insights of post-colonial scholarship, this study tackles a question given scant attention in previous work and suggests that beyond the hazy representation of the Orient, an opposition emerges between the threatening Near East and the indolent East Ind...
Widows, Pariahs, and Bayadères
This book analyzes how French dramatists reproduced certain images of India such as the burning widow, the lowly pariah or untouchable, and the exotic 'bayadere' or dancing girl in four plays and one ballet written from the eighteenth century through the twentieth centuries. Addressing questions of Orientalism, the book also argues that it was because the French lost their Indian colonies to the Briish in the eighteenth centuries that India became a part of the French literary imagination.
Premchand in World Languages
This volume explores the reception of Premchand’s works and his influence in the perception of India among Western cultures, especially Russian, German, French, Spanish and English. The essays in the collection also take a critical look at multiple translations of the same work (and examine how each new translation expands the work’s textuality and annexes new readership for the author) as well as representations of celluloid adaptations of Premchand’s works. An important intervention in the field of translation studies, this book will interest scholars and researchers of comparative literature, cultural studies and film studies.
Before Orientalism
Drawing on medieval accounts of the earliest European journeys to China, India, Mongolia, and southeast Asia, Before Orientalism explores European attitudes toward Asian eating habits, sexual practices, femininities, and civility, reconstructing a precolonial vision of the East that was often neutral or admiring.
Framing the Fifties
This anthology offers an account of German cinema in the fifties, focusing on popular genres, famous stars and dominant practices, taking into account the complicated relationships between East and West Germany, and by paying attention to the economic and political conditions of film production and reception during this period.
Take Two
This anthology offers an account of German cinema in the fifties, focusing on popular genres, famous stars and dominant practices, taking into account the complicated relationships between East and West Germany, and by paying attention to the economic and political conditions of film production and reception during this period.
Death and Religion in a Changing World
Looking at how religious people approach death in the twenty-first century, this is a comprehensive study of the intersection of death and religion. It describes how people from a variety of faiths draw on and adapt traditional beliefs and practices as they deal with death in modern societies.
The Sovereign Self
The toppling of statues in the name of anti-racism is disconcerting, as is the violence sometimes displayed towards others in the name of gender equality. The emancipation movements of the past seem to have undergone a subtle transformation: the struggle now is not so much to bring about progress but rather to denounce offenses, express indignation, and assert identities, sometimes in order to demand recognition. The individual’s commitment to self-definition and self-appreciation, understood as the exercise of a sovereign right, has become a distinctive sign of our time. Elisabeth Roudinesco takes us into the darker corners of identity thinking, where conspiracy theories, rejection of the...
Sati, the Blessing and the Curse
Sati symbolizes ultimate loyalty and self-sacrifice. It often figures near the core of a Hindu identity that feels embattled in a modern world. Yet to those who deplore it, sati is a curse, a violation of every woman's womanhood.
