Women in the Shadows
Subtitle: Gender, Puppets, and the Power of Tradition in Bali
Publisher: Ohio University Press
Published: Oct 31, 2016
Language: eng
Format: hardcover
Number of pages: 216
ISBN-13: 9780896803039
Description: "Wayang kulit, or shadow puppetry, connects a mythic past to the present through public ritual performance and is one of most important performance traditions in Bali. The dalang, or puppeteer, is revered in Balinese society as a teacher and spiritual leader. Recently, women have begun to study and perform in this traditionally male role, an innovation that has triggered resistance and controversy. In Women in the Shadows, Jennifer Goodlander draws on her own experience training as a dalang as well as interviews with early women dalang and leading artists to upend the usual assessments of such gender role shifts. She argues that rather than assuming that women performers are necessarily mounting a challenge to tradition, "tradition" in Bali must be understood as a system of power that is inextricably linked to gender hierarchy. She examines the very idea of "tradition" and how it forms both an ideological and social foundation in Balinese culture. Ultimately, Goodlander offers a richer, more complicated understanding of both tradition and gender in Balinese society"--
Notes: Source title: Women in the Shadows: Gender, Puppets, and the Power of Tradition in Bali (Ohio RIS Southeast Asia Series)