The Dance of Politics: Gender, Performance, and Democratization in Malawi - Couverture rigide

Gilman, Lisa

Couverture rigide

ISBN 10 : 159213985X ISBN 13 : 9781592139859

Editeur : Temple University Press,U.S., 2009

Synopsis

Book by Gilman Lisa

A propos du livre

Revue de presse :

"Gilman offers a rich, detailed examination of women's dancing as a political tool in the burgeoning democratic state of Malawi." CHOICE "The Dance of Politics is well written and analytically provocative. Gilman advances the scholarship on intersections between performance, gender, and nation building in postcolonial Africa and makes an important contribution in this regard. The situating of Malawi political dance within a broader understanding of political power, imbalances in economic power, and the gendering of power are the strengths of this book. The Dance of Politics is an excellent example of a diachronic, historical documentation of an African cultural form." - Daniel Reed, Associate Professor of Folklore and Ethnomusicology at Indiana University "In this carefully documented book, Lisa Gilman demonstrates how the embodied experiences of women's political dancing have served to both reinscribe and challenge women's subordinate status in Malawi. Through a nuanced analysis of the transformations of women's praise performing, Gilman provides an interdisciplinary ethnography that serves as an excellent model of intersectional research. She examines how power and agency operate on, with, and through women's performative bodies and minds at the intersections of gender, politics, and economics. A must read for anyone interested in women, gender, and power in Africa." - Jennifer Leigh Disney, Associate Professor of Political Science at Winthrop University and author of Women's Activism and Feminist Agency in Mozambique and Nicaragua (Temple) "Gilman's insightful book... Is very solidly rooted in first-hand observation, a piece of detailed reportage where events and discussions are related with the authority of extensive empirical witness over more than a decade. Direct quotation from interviews is extensive and the narrative is firmly grounded in the grassroots. At times it has a diary-like aspect...The reader is placed alongside the author, close to the raw data... [A] worthy addition." Africa, August 2011 "[A] fascinating book about women's political dancing in Malawi...[Gilman] raises some important methodological issues... This book has much to offer to its reader. Gilman's fieldwork data is well-documented and solidly embedded in the framework of gender theories. I can wholeheartedly recommend it." --The World of Music 2009

Présentation de l'éditeur :

Election campaigns, political events, and national celebration days in Malawi usually feature groups of women who dance and perform songs of praise for politicians and political parties. These lively performances help to attract and energize throngs of prospective voters. However, as Lisa Gilman explains, 'praise performing' is one of the only ways that women are allowed to participate in a male-dominated political system. Although political performances by women are not unique to Malawi, the case in Malawi is complicated by the fact that until 1994 all Malawian women were required to perform on behalf of the long-reigning political party and its self-declared 'President for Life', Dr. Hastings Kamuzu Banda. This is the first book to examine the present-day situation, where issues of gender, economics and politics collide in surprising ways. Along with its solid grounding in the relevant literature, "The Dance of Politics" draws strength from Gilman's first-hand observations and her interviews with a range of participants in the political process, from dancers to politicians.

À propos de cette édition

• Éditeur: Temple University Press,U.S.
• Date d'édition: 2009
• ISBN 10: 159213985X
• ISBN 13: 9781592139859
• Reliure: Relié
• Nombre de pages: 268