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With its analytic foci on the theme of exile, this volume examines
Tibetan fiction, music, art, cinema, pamphlets, testimony, and
memoir. The twelve case studies highlight the themes of Tibetans'
self-representation, politicized national consciousness, religious
and cultural heritages, and resistance to the forces of
colonization. This book demonstrates how Tibetan cultural
narratives adjust to intercultural influences and ongoing social
and political struggles.
Since their beginnings in the 1930s, Hindi films and film songs
have dominated Indian public culture in India, and have also made
their presence felt strongly in many global contexts. Hindi film
songs have been described on the one hand as highly standardized
and on the other as highly eclectic. Anna Morcom addresses many of
the paradoxes eccentricities and myths of not just Hindi film songs
but also of Hindi cinema by analysing film songs in cinematic
context. While the presence of songs in Hindi films is commonly
dismissed as 'purely commercial', this book demonstrates that in
terms of the production process, musical style, and commercial
life, it is most powerfully the parent film that shapes and defines
the film songs and their success rather than the other way round.
While they constitute India's still foremost genre of popular
music, film songs are also situational, dramatic sequences,
inherently multi-media in style and conception. This book is
uniquely grounded in detailed musical and visual analysis of Hindi
film songs, song sequences and films as well as a wealth of
ethnographic material from the Hindi film and music industries. Its
findings lead to highly novel ways of viewing Hindi film songs,
their key role in Hindi cinema, and how this affects their wider
life in India and across the globe. It will be indispensable to
scholars seeking to understand both Hindi film songs and Hindi
cinema. It also forms a major contribution to popular music,
popular culture, film music studies and ethnomusicology, tackling
pertinent issues of cultural production, (multi-)media, and the
cross-cultural use of music in Hindi cinema. The book caters for
both music specialists as well as a wider audience.
Until the 1930s no woman could perform in public and retain
respectability in India. Professional female performers were
courtesans and dancing girls who lived beyond the confines of
marriage, but were often powerful figures in social and cultural
life. Women's roles were often also taken by boys and men, some of
whom were simply female impersonators, others transgender. Since
the late nineteenth century the status, livelihood and identity of
these performers have all diminished, with the result that many of
them have become involved in sexual transactions and sexualised
performances. Meanwhile, upper-class, upper-caste women have taken
control of the classical performing arts and also entered the film
industry, while a Bollywood dance and fitness craze has recently
swept middle class India. In her historical on-the-ground study,
Anna Morcom investigates the emergence of illicit worlds of dance
in the shadow of India's official performing arts. She explores
over a century of marginalisation of courtesans, dancing girls, bar
girls and transgender performers, and de- scribes their lives as
they struggle with stigmatisation, derision and loss of livelihood.
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