Bodymaps - Stories by South Asian Women

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