This book is a part of the ongoing project by women to write themselves back into the historical and social canvas. The present collection of essays takes pride in being a part of this vital process of correcting gender imbalances in centuries old patriarchal structures. However, in many ways, these essays also go beyond the agenda of salvage or retrieval from patriarchal registers. Besides reopening texts in which even female voices echo the males, the authors also explore the subjectivity of women through the mode of fiction, art, the media and oral traditions.
While many of the recent publications under the genre of women's studies have focussed on women in a generic sense, the present collection is centred around the theme of images and self-images of Indian women. The former implies, by and large, male agency in the imaging of women while the latter signifies a subjective and self-reflexive exercise by women. It is hoped that these essays will provide feminists exploring fresh areas of research on women with methodological insights into how traditional as well as non-conventional sources could be used to deconstruct existing images of women and in doing so, re-present women in fresh and hitherto unperceived ways.
Preface 11
Acknowledgement 13
List of Contributors 15
Re-searching Icons, Re-presenting Indian Women Vijaya Ramaswamy 17
I Self-Reflections 37-65
II Imaging Women within Historical Traditions 75-119
III Reworking Oral Traditions 139-175
IV Re-searching Women in Fiction and Biography 211-289
V Images of Women and Work 299-317
VI Women on Stage 337-353
Index 373
Vijaya Ramaswamy taught History at the Jawaharlal Nehru University. Her major publications include Textiles and Weavers in Medieval South India (1985); Divinity and Deviance: Women in Virasaivism (1996) and Walking Naked: Women, Society and Spirituality in South India (1997). She has also published articles on economic history, women's history, Indian folklore and religious studies in Indian and international journals.
