Songs of Desire and Defiance
Subjectivity, Emotions, and Authenticity in Bhawaiya Folk Songs of North Bengal
Songs of Desire and Defiance
Subjectivity, Emotions, and Authenticity in Bhawaiya Folk Songs of North Bengal
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Description
Explore the desires and defiance of women through the haunting lyrics and melodies of Bhawaiya folk songs, a music tradition of Bengal.
Bhawaiya and other Bangla folk traditions endure without conforming to dominant expectations, and they sustain deviant, defiant voices that resist cultural homogenization. By weaving together history, performance, emotion, and politics, this book highlights the transformative power of folk music to unsettle identity and create new possibilities of sexual subjectivity in South Asia. It explores how cultural forms embody, negotiate, and subvert constructions of identity, looking at lyrics and performances that historically embody female sexual subjectivity and defiant emotions while considering the debate around authenticity between nationalist, corporate, and Islamist interests. With in-depth ethnographic storytelling that connects colonial and postcolonial histories and contemporary politics, it traces how Bhawaiya creates spaces for alternative voices that resist dominant narratives of national, religious and gender identities.
Table of Contents
Introduction
1. Identities and Bhawaiya in Their Subversive Margins
2. Subjectivity of Deviant, Defiant and Dangerous Women
3. Becoming the Woman of Bhawiaya
4. Negotiating Authentic Subject
Conclusion
Bibliography
Index
Product details
| Published | Jul 09 2026 |
|---|---|
| Format | Ebook (Epub & Mobi) |
| Edition | 1st |
| Extent | 208 |
| ISBN | 9781978760561 |
| Imprint | Bloomsbury Academic |
| Illustrations | 6 b/w photos |
| Series | Popular Musics Matter: Social, Political and Cultural Interventions |
| Publisher | Bloomsbury Publishing |
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