IDENTITY Telling lives inscribe human subjectivity and individuals write about their lives in order to share their unique experiences for future generations as valuable social documents. At the same time, on a personal level, there is an inherent urge to…
The term life writing refers to a wide range of materials of self-inscription and self-representation, which includes autobiographies, biographies, life histories, diaries, memoirs, letters and journals. The existence of life writing material can be traced as far back as the…
Abstract: The paper explains the concept of ‘Sahrudaya’ by drawing on the principles of Kashmir Shaivism and Rasa-Dhvani. The discussion does away with some of the misconceptions regarding ‘Sahrudaya’. Rasika, Buddha and Vibuddha are some of the words used in lieu…
Abstract: This paper argues that in naatyam (dramatics) the actor’s body produces aesthetic cadence that peaks as emotional experience for the sahrudaya. The affect that a Kathakali performance produces is a state of sublimity of the mind, unattached to the…
Abstract: When we talk of sustainability- one factor to note is what we perceive as the natural environment and natural resources and how we use them. Secondly how do we sustain human welfare and improvements in human capability consonant with…
Abstract: The paper connects affect studies with Indigenous Studies, Science and Technology Studies, and the emergent field called extinction studies or climate change studies. Claire Colebrook’s two 2014 Deleuzean books on extinction argue for a “theory beyond theory,” where affect…
Abstract: More than one lakh women die in India every year due to pregnancy, most of them being married adolescents. India is still grappling with the effort of reducing maternal mortality as it records the highest number of maternal deaths…
Abstract: Embarrassment, shame and humiliation form a spectrum of negative emotions that are both self-conscious and other-regarding. This paper studies this spectrum to understand humiliation. Conventional studies on humiliation presuppose intersubjective mediation between the self and the other and a visceral…
Abstract: “What ever I am today I owe it to my self help group” is how Kamal Jaivant Shinde, popularly called Shinde tai, starts her introduction. Her feelings are not misplaced since for a woman, working as a labourer in…
Abstract: The Tamil writer P. Sivakami’s sequential novels The Grip of Change (Pazhaiyana Kalithalum, 1989) and Gowri: Author’s Notes (Gowri: Aasiriyar Kurippu, 1999) were written in the wake of the Bodi caste riots in Tamil Nadu between Pallars (a Dalit caste…
Abstract: The Self Help Group (SHG) Prerna (loosely translated to mean inspiration) led by Mahadevi Kudal is a group of 5 physically handicapped women in the Panmagrul village of Akalkot Taluka in Maharashtra. Panmagrul is a village with a population…
Abstract: Several threads of thoughts were running through my mind, while travelling to my destination, a village called Kavthepiran in Sangli district. I was aware I had undertaken the task of capturing the complexity of a village in the limited…