The history of understanding and understanding of history: A dialogue with epic heroes and heroines.
Item
-
Title
-
The history of understanding and understanding of history: A dialogue with epic heroes and heroines.
-
Identifier
-
AAI9510629
-
identifier
-
9510629
-
Creator
-
Bandlamudi, Lakshmi.
-
Contributor
-
Adviser: Joseph Glick
-
Date
-
1994
-
Language
-
English
-
Publisher
-
City University of New York.
-
Subject
-
Psychology, Developmental | Literature, Asian | Mass Communications
-
Abstract
-
The idea that understanding a literary text is an imaginative act in which something profound about the reader, the text and the world in which both are located is revealed and created is the underlying theme in this research. The study examined the dynamics of reading the ancient epic text Mahabharath; specifically how some individuals of Indian origin living in the United States of America make sense of certain segments from B. R. Chopra's television production of Mahabharath. Segments from the television production were selectively chosen to focus on the heroine Draupadi and the hero Karna. These selected segments for viewing were both significant to the text and to contemporary concerns and conflicts on gender, caste and class relations. From an epistemological standpoint, the study explored the dynamics of the "history of understanding" and "understanding of history".;This study is about understanding an all pervasive cultural historical text. Epic tales in India penetrates everyday life, and since the pull of the "story" is so strong in Indian ontology, the boundaries between text/reader, past/present get erased and established, and the study focused on the negotiation of these boundaries. If Mahabharath is a part and parcel of everyday life, the question then is how do we give meaning to everyday life. In order to address this question methodologically, I tried to examine the "interpretive styles" in "reading" lives and reading the familiar epic text.;The study suggests that personal identity and self awareness is at the center of the interpretive act. Readers treat Mahabharath the way they treat everyday life experiences. The more intertextual the self is the more intertextual the epic becomes. The readers' active journey through various time zones and cultural spaces facilitates their development of aesthetic consciousness and in turn enriches the text. An "inactive" movement on the other hand treats each space and time as isolated units and does not facilitate the recognition of multiple realities. In the active understanding, the epic comes in contact with the living present and in turn aids in the development of meaning making.;To conclude, the study suggests that understanding the ancient past involves both "dislocating" and "relocating" the past, after making all the additions and editions and reshuffling the text.
-
Type
-
dissertation
-
Source
-
PQT Legacy CUNY.xlsx
-
degree
-
Ph.D.
