Description

Book Synopsis
Presents the social and cultural history of courtesans in South India who are generally called devadasis, focusing on their encounters with colonial modernity in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. This title charts the historical fissures that lie beneath cultural modernity in South India.

Trade Review
"Sensitive, sympathetic, and very well-written, Unfinished Gestures moves the debate about devadasis in a new and interesting direction and will be the standard bearer in the field. Soneji's ethnographic work supports his historical claims and brings to life the poignancy of contemporary devadasis' lives." (Janaki Bakhle, Columbia University)"

Unfinished Gestures Devadasis Memory and

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    A Paperback / softback by Davesh Soneji

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      View other formats and editions of Unfinished Gestures Devadasis Memory and by Davesh Soneji

      Publisher: The University of Chicago Press
      Publication Date: 15/01/2012
      ISBN13: 9780226768106, 978-0226768106
      ISBN10: 0226768104
      Also in:
      Social and cultural history

      Description

      Book Synopsis
      Presents the social and cultural history of courtesans in South India who are generally called devadasis, focusing on their encounters with colonial modernity in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. This title charts the historical fissures that lie beneath cultural modernity in South India.

      Trade Review
      "Sensitive, sympathetic, and very well-written, Unfinished Gestures moves the debate about devadasis in a new and interesting direction and will be the standard bearer in the field. Soneji's ethnographic work supports his historical claims and brings to life the poignancy of contemporary devadasis' lives." (Janaki Bakhle, Columbia University)"

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