Author: Radha Chakravarty
Translator(s)/ Edito: Radha Chakravarty
Publisher: Kali/Zubaan
Year: 2007
Language: English
Pages: 186
ISBN/UPC (if available): 8189013777
Description
The body as social and cultural text provides a rich site for creative experimentation in this collection of short stories by contemporary women writers of South Asia.
In a world that tends to equate the body with biology, and femininity with the reproductive function, these writers from Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka interrogate these assumptions and reinscribe the body as a source of resistance and self-empowerment.
Identity, history, myth, scientific experiment, social hierarchies, sexuality, nationalism, violence, ethics and ecology are interwoven issues for which the body in these stories becomes a powerful signifier. Together, these bodymaps chart a subversive female geography that startles with its boldly inclusive vision.
Contents
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
INTRODUCTION
The Offspring
INDIRA GOSWAMI
Dim Light
AMRITA PRITAM
The Bell
BHUWAN DHUNGANA
The Flower Vase
ISMAT CHUGHTAI
Sindhubala
Mahasweta Devi
Once Again
AMBAI
A Matter of Choice
YASHODHARA MISRA
The Photographs
KUNZANG CHODEN
Fire
KATHLEEN JAYAWARDENE
Unfaithful Servants
MANJULA PADMANABHAN
Double War
SELINA HOSSAIN
Abyss
ASHA KARDALEY
The Man Who Became a Bear
EASTERINE IRALU
Achilles Heel
ZAHEDA HINA
The Sandal Trees
KAMALA DAS
CONTRIBUTORS