Masked ritual and performance in South India
Subtitle: dance, healing, and possession
By: David  Schulman and  Deborah Thiagarajan, editors.
Contributors: Shulman, David Dean, 1949-; Thiagarajan, Deborah.; University of Michigan. Center for South Asian Studies.; University of Michigan. Center for Southeast Asian Studies.
Publisher: Centers for South and Southeast Asian Studies, Univiversity of Michigan
Published: 2006
Place of publication: Michigan
Language: eng
Number of pages: 264
Subjects: Masks.; Theater -- India, South -- History.; Folk drama, Indic -- India, South -- History and criticism.
Description: "Throughout South India, masks are related to the presence of divine beings and, as such, induce transformation in the awareness of both performers and audience. Masked performance may also be powerfully linked to rituals of healing, which aim at freeing the self from states of blockage, isolation, and possession. Taken together, the essays offer an initial grammar of South Indian masking as the culture-specific formation of visible surfaces in which primary issues of identity, self-knowledge, and perception are brought into play. Masking thus implies meta-psychological perspectives on the notions of self, face, and maturation and on the internal economy of the mind in cultures far removed from standard Western psychological paradigms."--BOOK JACKET.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references.