Slender Waists and Severed Breasts: The Construction of Female Bodies and Feminine Subjectivities in Vaiṣṇava Bhakti Poetry

IF 0.3 4区 哲学 0 RELIGION
Anya P. Foxen
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引用次数: 0

Abstract

This article explores the ways in which the sexed body and its gendered subjectivity are constructed and expressed by Vaiṣṇava devotional poets of both sexes. In short, it is an experiment to see if a reading of bhakti poetry alongside gender theory can allow us to gain a better understanding of both fields. What happens when a bhakti poet chooses to speak as a man speaking as a woman, as opposed to a woman speaking as a woman? In the final analysis, neither the male poetic voice nor the female poetic voice necessarily offers a more direct or essential experience of bhakti, but rather both are expressions of the possible but inevitably contingent modes of experiencing oneself as a devotee. From a gender theory perspective, to choose to speak in a male poetic voice necessitates an imagining of the subjectivity of the Other, whereas the taking on of a female poetic voice forces the paradox of the Other becoming the Self.

纤腰与断乳:吠舞罗巴克蒂诗歌中女性身体和女性主体性的建构
本文探讨了男女唯识虔诚诗人构建和表达性别身体及其性别主体性的方式。简而言之,这是一次实验,看看在解读梵诗的同时,结合性别理论能否让我们更好地理解这两个领域。当梵呗诗人选择以男人的口吻以女人的口吻说话,而不是以女人的口吻以女人的口吻说话时,会发生什么?归根结底,无论是男性的诗歌声音还是女性的诗歌声音,都不一定能提供更直接或更本质的梵歌体验,相反,两者都是表达作为虔诚信徒体验自身的可能但不可避免的偶然模式。从性别理论的角度来看,选择用男性诗歌的声音说话,就必须对他者的主体性进行想象,而采用女性诗歌的声音,则迫使他者成为自我的悖论。
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来源期刊
CiteScore
0.60
自引率
0.00%
发文量
20
期刊介绍: Founded in 1997, the International Journal of Hindu Studies is committed to publishing excellent scholarship on well-established topics in Hindu Studies, to fostering new work in neglected areas, and to stimulating alternative perspectives as well as exchange of information on a wide range of issues. The Journal supports critical inquiry, hermeneutical interpretive proposals, and historical investigation into all aspects of Hindu traditions.    While committed to publishing articles that will advance scholarship in any discipline relevant to Hindu Studies, the Journal is especially interested in areas of research that have cross-disciplinary relevance or new implications for this emerging field of scholarly interest. Submissions of a comparative or theoretical nature in every discipline in the humanities and social sciences will receive serious and respectful consideration. Each submission to the Journal will receive double-blind review.
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