Genealogies and legacies: A postcolonial historiography of Mohiniyattam

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dc.contributor.advisorCandelario, Rosemary
dc.contributor.committeeMemberFuchs, Jordan
dc.contributor.committeeMemberMorgan, Ilana
dc.creatorRajesh, Anisha
dc.creator.orcid0009-0007-3587-0793
dc.date.accessioned2024-01-23T18:09:28Z
dc.date.available2024-01-23T18:09:28Z
dc.date.created2023-08
dc.date.issuedAugust 2023
dc.date.submittedAugust 2023
dc.date.updated2024-01-23T18:09:29Z
dc.description.abstractThis dissertation develops an alternate history of the classical dance form Mohiniyattam native to the state of Kerala in India to acknowledge the amalgamation of the kinesthetic contributions of different practitioners in Mohiniyattam. I explore how the identities of the indigenous Mohiniyattam dancers shifted as they became implicated in the changing discourses of colonialism and nationalism and how they became the subjects in larger debates about sexuality, womanhood, and the nation. In this project, I situate Mohiniyattam in the larger context of nationalist movements in the late 1800s and the early 1900s, which paved the way to the independence of India in 1947 and connect it with the notion of Victorian morality, which seeped into the social ethos of the nation during the colonial period. I also focus on the shift of a major community in Kerala society from matriarchy to patriarchy as well as on the division of India into various states on the basis of regional languages after independence; I explore how these socio-political issues are all intertwined with the history of bodies in Mohiniyattam as well as the reconstruction of the form. In this dissertation, I pay attention to the choreographies, dance pieces, and movement vocabularies of various dancers whose contributions are considered as invaluable to the development of Mohiniyattam. My research mainly relied on oral histories and archival research to develop a qualitative study of four practitioners who were identified as pioneer contributors to the field of Mohiniyattam in the postcolonial era: Kalyanikuttyamma, Kalamandalam Satyabhama, Kanak Rele, and Bharathi Shivaji. Though the reconstruction of Mohiniyattam in the 1950s parallels the renaissance and reincarnation of many classical dance forms in India, I argue that the historical, cultural, and geographic elements of Mohiniyattam are specific to the form.
dc.format.mimetypeapplication/pdf
dc.identifier.uri
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/11274/15635
dc.language.isoEnglish
dc.subjectDance studies; Postcolonial studies; Historiography
dc.subject.otherMohiniyattam
dc.subject.otherIndian classical dance
dc.subject.otherPostcolonial
dc.subject.otherHistorigraphy
dc.subject.otherKerala
dc.subject.otherKalamandalam
dc.subject.otherSatyabhama
dc.subject.otherKalyanikuttyamma
dc.subject.otherKanak Rele
dc.subject.otherBharati Shivaji
dc.subject.otherPostmodernism
dc.subject.otherOral history
dc.subject.otherArchival research
dc.subject.otherMohiniattam
dc.subject.otherKavalam Narayana Panicker
dc.subject.otherVallathol
dc.subject.otherFemale dance traditions
dc.titleGenealogies and legacies: A postcolonial historiography of Mohiniyattam
dc.typeThesis
dc.type.materialtext
thesis.degree.collegeCollege of Arts and Sciences
thesis.degree.departmentSchool of the Arts & Design
thesis.degree.disciplineDance
thesis.degree.grantorTexas Woman's University
thesis.degree.nameDoctor of Philosophy
thesis.degree.programChicago 17th edition
thesis.degree.schoolTexas Woman's University

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