Gender, Space and Resistance: Women’s Theatre in India

Gender, Space and Resistance: Women’s Theatre in India
Theme
Theatre in India has a long tradition. Women have performed roles that have ranged from playwright to direction and acting, to criticism, research and organization. There is extensive material to show the presence of women in all these areas.
This proposed anthology furthers research undertaken to explore women's presence in and their contribution to theatre in the recorded history and provide a platform to raise, discuss and debate, to the minutest details, issues connected with theatre—from aesthetics and techniques of the theatre to the political, social and moral values of the women involved in theatre. From the study of the available material it is seen that the actual contribution of women to theatre is marginalized in the otherwise comprehensive analysis of the theatre Thus an important component of women's cultural tradition is missing.
1960’s threw up new spaces for reconceptualizing and negotiating questions of women’s agency and identity. Aurat was street plays produced by Janamor Jan Natya Manch (People’s Theatre) of India, (This play has had more than 2,500 performances, and has been translated into almost all Indian languages). It challenged bourgeois notions of womanhood and articulated a politics that explicitly connected gender, class, and sexuality with home, factory, and fields, on the one hand, and with revolutionary change, on the other. Flood gates for women centric plays were flung open .Much of the plays that surfaced were based on Brechtian poetics, in which the spectator delegates power to the character to act in her place but the spectator reserves the right to think for [herself] often in opposition to the character. In contrast to Aristotelian poetics, wherein a passive spectator experiences a catharsis at the end of the dramatic action, the Brechtian spectator achieves a more activist, unsettling, “critical awareness” of societal issues. New generation of theatre practitioners were sculpting a new dramaturgy, creating an audience that does not demand to be delighted but content to engage with dialectics. The ultimate objective of this theatre was the creation of a more just society.

Topics
Original and unpublished papers are invited on the following topics and we also welcome suggestion for inclusion of other relevant topics as well:
1. Trends in feminist theatre
2. Theorizing feminist theatre
3. Themes/concerns of feminist drama
4. Discussion of particular texts/productions/performances
5. Focus on major dramatist, director, dramaturge, performers, and technicians on stage
6. Pedagogical implications of feminist theatre
7. New directions in the 21st century

MS Guide:
Style: MLA
Text: Heading 1—Ariel 16 bold, Heading 2—Ariel 14 bold, Body Ariel 12 normal, double spaced, Letter
Images/illustrations, if any: copyright free images in JPEG format between 800-1024 pixels on the longest side
Word-limit: minimum 3000 words and maximum 5000 words.

Submission:
Please send an abstract of about 150-200 words explaining your proposal by February 28. If selected, final articles should be submitted by 30th April 2011.

Contact
Anita Singh
Professor, Department of English, Faculty of Arts, Banaras Hindu University
Varanasi 221005, India. Email: anitasinghh@gmail.com

Tarun Tapas Mukherjee
Assistant Professor & Head, Department of English, Bhatter College, Paschim Medinipur, West Bengal, India. E-mail: ttm1974@gmail.com