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CWS is organising a seminar by Dr. Urmimala Sarkar Munsi

CWS is organising a seminar by Dr. Urmimala Sarkar Munsi

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CWS is organising a seminar by Dr. Urmimala Sarkar Munsi
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CENTRE FOR WOMEN’S STUDIES, JNU

 

Invites you to a Seminar on

 


Dance and body package in Bollywood: Buy one, get one free

 


by
Dr. Urmimala Sarkar Munsi
(Associate Professor, School of Arts & Aesthetics, JNU)

 

Abstract: The world of global Bollywood relentlessly uses mediated images of hyper-gendered female dancing bodies in the films produced by it. These moving images are used for popular entertainment in the films, for selling products, and to promote lifestyle choices in a market where both beauty and labour are bought and sold as commodities. Dispossession of the women dancers become inevitable as they merely hold in trust and hoard their assets (in this case body, skills, sexuality) in hope of getting visibility and recognition. The hyper-sexualized magic of Bollywood dance has come to be well-known through the display and use of skills. Female bodies come as price- labelled commodities and for buyers (producers/directors) beauty and dance come as a package where buying beauty means automatically expecting to get the skill of dance for free or vice versa. The popularity of the dances of Bollywood has successfully moved beyond the local, and has created its own global market – competing with or beating the classical dances like Bharatanatyam, Odissi and so on in popularity. The choreographers in these dances make use of tropes of the 'orient' and the 'Indian' as well as the so called 'Western' dances in creating 'whatever sells' – which has been called a ‘Glocal’ dance, by dance studies scholars. This product is popular not only in terms of the market it has, but also because of the counter-aesthetics it has come to be known for. This research works on the idea of the Bollywood dance and dancing bodies as commodities and replaces terms like ‘aesthetic’ with ‘marketability’, and ‘audience’ with ‘buyers’ for its analysis of the genre of Bollywood dance. It projects Bollywood as a space where bodies are always replicated, losing all significations of individualism, exactly like commercially produced and marketed products in a neo-liberal society driven by consumption.

 

Date: 12th September 2017, Tuesday,
Time: 3.00 PM to 5.00 PM
Venue: Committee Room No.324, Third Floor, SSS-I

All are Welcome!

A warm welcome to the modified and updated website of the Centre for East Asian Studies. The East Asian region has been at the forefront of several path-breaking changes since 1970s beginning with the redefining the development architecture with its State-led development model besides emerging as a major region in the global politics and a key hub of the sophisticated technologies. The Centre is one of the thirteen Centres of the School of International Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi that provides a holistic understanding of the region.

Initially, established as a Centre for Chinese and Japanese Studies, it subsequently grew to include Korean Studies as well. At present there are eight faculty members in the Centre. Several distinguished faculty who have now retired include the late Prof. Gargi Dutt, Prof. P.A.N. Murthy, Prof. G.P. Deshpande, Dr. Nranarayan Das, Prof. R.R. Krishnan and Prof. K.V. Kesavan. Besides, Dr. Madhu Bhalla served at the Centre in Chinese Studies Programme during 1994-2006. In addition, Ms. Kamlesh Jain and Dr. M. M. Kunju served the Centre as the Documentation Officers in Chinese and Japanese Studies respectively.

The academic curriculum covers both modern and contemporary facets of East Asia as each scholar specializes in an area of his/her interest in the region. The integrated course involves two semesters of classes at the M. Phil programme and a dissertation for the M. Phil and a thesis for Ph. D programme respectively. The central objective is to impart an interdisciplinary knowledge and understanding of history, foreign policy, government and politics, society and culture and political economy of the respective areas. Students can explore new and emerging themes such as East Asian regionalism, the evolving East Asian Community, the rise of China, resurgence of Japan and the prospects for reunification of the Korean peninsula. Additionally, the Centre lays great emphasis on the building of language skills. The background of scholars includes mostly from the social science disciplines; History, Political Science, Economics, Sociology, International Relations and language.

Several students of the centre have been recipients of prestigious research fellowships awarded by Japan Foundation, Mombusho (Ministry of Education, Government of Japan), Saburo Okita Memorial Fellowship, Nippon Foundation, Korea Foundation, Nehru Memorial Fellowship, and Fellowship from the Chinese and Taiwanese Governments. Besides, students from Japan receive fellowship from the Indian Council of Cultural Relations.