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Bodies of Song: Kabir Oral Traditions and Performative Worlds in North India
Contributor(s): Hess, Linda (Author)

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 ISBN: 0199374163     ISBN-13: 9780199374168
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
OUR PRICE: $157.50  

Binding Type: Hardcover - See All Available Formats & Editions
Published: August 2015
* Out of Print *
Additional Information
BISAC Categories:
- Religion | Hinduism - History
- Literary Criticism | Asian - Indic
Dewey: 891.431
LCCN: 2014036589
Physical Information: 1.2" H x 6.4" W x 9.4" L (1.80 lbs) 488 pages
Themes:
- Cultural Region - Indian
Features: Bibliography, Illustrated, Index
Review Citations: Choice 03/01/2016
 
Descriptions, Reviews, Etc.
Publisher Description:
Kabir was a great iconoclastic-mystic poet of fifteenth-century North India; his poems were composed orally, written down by others in manuscripts and books, and transmitted through song. Scholars and translators usually attend to written collections, but these present only a partial picture
of the Kabir who has remained vibrantly alive through the centuries mostly in oral forms. Entering the worlds of singers and listeners in rural Madhya Pradesh, Bodies of Song combines ethnographic and textual study in exploring how oral transmission and performance shape the content and
interpretation of vernacular poetry in North India. The book investigates textual scholars' study of oral-performative traditions in a milieu where texts move simultaneously via oral, written, audio/video-recorded, and electronic pathways.

As texts and performances are always socially embedded, Linda Hess brings readers into the lives of those who sing, hear, celebrate, revere, and dispute about Kabir. Bodies of Song is rich in stories of individuals and families, villages and towns, religious and secular organizations, castes and
communities. Dialogue between religious/spiritual Kabir and social/political Kabir is a continuous theme throughout the book: ambiguously located between Hindu and Muslim cultures, Kabir rejected religious identities, pretentions, and hypocrisies. But even while satirizing the religious, he composed
stunning poetry of religious experience and psychological insight. A weaver by trade, Kabir also criticized caste and other inequalities and today serves as an icon for Dalits and all who strive to remove caste prejudice and oppression.
 
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