Description
Narayan presents 21 stories learned and told orally by one woman, Urmila Devi, in Kangra, North India. Included are stories told for worship and stories told for entertainment. In the process of recounting the stories, Narayan brings to life her friendship with the storyteller, and also offers important arguments about oral traditions and performance, as well as about North Indian families and folklore.
About the Author
Kirin Narayan, Associate Professor of Anthropology and South Asian Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, is an anthropologist, folklorist, and novelist. She is author of Storytellers, Saints and Scoundrels: Folk Narrative in Hindu Religious Teaching, which won the 1991 Victor Turner Prize for Ethnographic Writing and shared the Elsie Clews Parsons Prize for Folklore. She is also author of Love, Stars and All That, a novel about South Asian Americans.
Reviews
"A unique volume....The author's scholarly and personal journey during her work with Urmilaji informs the whole....An excellent work; recommended for all folktale collections."--Library Journal "The translations are accomplished and the tales captivating....Part folktale study, part ethnography, part personal narrative, it is wholeheartedly an attempt to collaborate with the tale-teller. It is a pioneering and important book, which takes a firm stand in ongoing debates about the ethics of ethnography and the location of meaning in performed culture."--Stuart Blackburn, The Journal of Asian Studies "Teachers of Indian Studies in grades 11 through undergraduate will do well to look closely at this book. It offers accessible riches for the curious, peer-oriented student as well as for more academic readers....Courses or units on cross-cultural studies of women will find this work rewarding....an excellent text for folklore and gender studies courses."--Education About Asia
Book Information
ISBN 9780195103496
Author Kirin Narayan
Format Paperback
Page Count 288
Imprint Oxford University Press Inc
Publisher Oxford University Press Inc
Weight(grams) 399g
Dimensions(mm) 233mm * 159mm * 19mm
About the Author
Kirin Narayan, Associate Professor of Anthropology and South Asian Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, is an anthropologist, folklorist, and novelist. She is author of Storytellers, Saints and Scoundrels: Folk Narrative in Hindu Religious Teaching, which won the 1991 Victor Turner Prize for Ethnographic Writing and shared the Elsie Clews Parsons Prize for Folklore. She is also author of Love, Stars and All That, a novel about South Asian Americans.
Reviews
"A unique volume....The author's scholarly and personal journey during her work with Urmilaji informs the whole....An excellent work; recommended for all folktale collections."--Library Journal "The translations are accomplished and the tales captivating....Part folktale study, part ethnography, part personal narrative, it is wholeheartedly an attempt to collaborate with the tale-teller. It is a pioneering and important book, which takes a firm stand in ongoing debates about the ethics of ethnography and the location of meaning in performed culture."--Stuart Blackburn, The Journal of Asian Studies "Teachers of Indian Studies in grades 11 through undergraduate will do well to look closely at this book. It offers accessible riches for the curious, peer-oriented student as well as for more academic readers....Courses or units on cross-cultural studies of women will find this work rewarding....an excellent text for folklore and gender studies courses."--Education About Asia
Book Information
ISBN 9780195103496
Author Kirin Narayan
Format Paperback
Page Count 288
Imprint Oxford University Press Inc
Publisher Oxford University Press Inc
Weight(grams) 399g
Dimensions(mm) 233mm * 159mm * 19mm
