14 – Performing Womanhood: Women’s Language in Premodern South Asia
This panel examines women's language use through the lens of performance in premodern South Asia. We explore how, and to what effect, staged women figures used language across various mediums, including literature, performative arts, scholarly discourses, and other traditions. We define performance broadly as any enactment of cultural norms, social roles, or individual expression.
We approach these voices as representations of womanhood, considering how predominantly male artists and audiences interpreted and imagined women's voices. By focusing on linguistic use, we aim to uncover the tensions between lived experiences and cultural constructions of femininity in premodern South Asia. This approach allows us to move beyond textual norms and emic conventions, considering the contextual, emotional, and embodied aspects of women's language use while examining the filters through which these performances have been received and recorded.
Collaborating with scholars versed in diverse South Asian languages, regions, and literary and performative traditions, we seek to elucidate overarching patterns and interconnections within the South Asian context while also highlighting distinctive cultural expressions. By exploring the complex interplay between performance, representation, and social reality, we aim to provide methods and insights regarding the dynamic nature of gender construction in South Asian history. This multifaceted approach hopefully enables a better understanding of the nuances of gender representation and the role of language in shaping cultural perceptions of womanhood during this period.
