(Ebook) Feminist Theory and the Aesthetics Within: A Perspective from South Asia by Anu Aneja ISBN 9780367219017, 0367219018

This book re-examines feminist theory by looking at South Asian aesthetic conventions drawn from iconography, philosophy, Indo-Islamic mystic folk traditions and poetics. It discusses alternate fluid representations of gender and intersectional identities and interrelationships in some dominant as well as non-elite Indic aesthetic traditions. The book explores pre-Vedic sculptural and Indus terracotta iconographies; the classical aesthetic philosophy of rasa; mystic folk poetry of Bhakti and Sufi movements, and ghazal and Urdu poetics, to understand the political dimension of feminist theory in India as well as its implications for trans-continental feminist aesthetics across South Asia and the west. By interlinking pre-historic, classical, medieval, pre-modern and contemporary aesthetic and literary traditions of South Asia through a gendered perspective, the book bridges a major gap in feminist theory.

An interdisciplinary work, this book will be useful for scholars and researchers of feminist theory, women’s studies, gender studies, art and aesthetics, philosophy, literature, cultural studies, queer studies, sexuality studies, political studies, sociology and South Asian studies.