Gender and Performance: An Indian Perspective

By Dr. Rachana Pandey | Vasanta College for Women, KFI, Rajghat, Varanasi (Banaras Hindu University)

Learners enrolled: 524 | Exam registration: 53

ABOUT THE COURSE:

It is a 4-week course that aims to discuss the role of gender in the context of theatre and performance in India. This course familiarizes learners with the evolution of theatre in India and explores how the various gender identities have been portrayed in various theatrical practices in India. In the journey of these 4 weeks, this course “Gender and Performance: An Indian Perspective” will begin with the basic terms like Drama, play, Natya, theatre, performance, performative, and gender and gradually advance towards a deeper understanding of gender practices in society through various plays and performances. In addition to that, this course will develop competency to study drama, analyse performances and engage you as a spectator with an understanding of various beliefs and ideologies. This course develops critical abilities, helps to question and reshape gender identities. Furthermore, this course will be an engaging exploration for students of literature, gender and theatre studies and theatre enthusiasts who wish to delve into the captivating field of theatre in India through the gender lens and re-view the societal values and norms through performances and dramatic texts which will make the learner acquainted with social and theatrical constructions at various levels. In this course, every week there will be five modules of 30 minutes duration each, followed by weekly assignments which will be MCQ-based questions. The queries of learners will be answered on the discussion forum.

INTENDED AUDIENCE: UG, PG students, research scholars and freelancers in media who are pursuing arts and literature programmes of studies or having interest in the field of arts and literature can take up.

PREREQUISITES: Students who have completed Intermediate (12+)

INDUSTRY SUPPORT: For academics only

Summary

Course Status :	Ongoing
Course Type :	Elective
Language for course content :	English
Duration :	4 weeks
Category :	Humanities and Social Sciences
Credit Points :	1
Level :	Undergraduate/Postgraduate
Start Date :	17 Feb 2025
End Date :	14 Mar 2025
Enrollment Ends :	17 Feb 2025
Exam Registration Ends :	28 Feb 2025
Exam Date :	25 Apr 2025 IST

Note: This exam date is subject to change based on seat availability. You can check final exam date on your hall ticket.

Page Visits

Course layout

Week 1: History of Performance in India from Gender Perspective
Week 2: Gender, Theatre and Theories
Week 3: Gender and various performative traditions in India
Week 4: Gender and the Changing Scenario of Theatre in Modern India

Books and references

1.Aston, Elaine. An Introduction to Feminism and Theatre. London: Routledge, 1995.

2.Bhatia, Nandi, ed. Modern Indian Theatre: A Reader. New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2009.

3.---. performing women/performing womanhood: Theatre, Politics, and Dissent in North India. New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2010.

4.Dalmia, Vasudha. Poetics, Plays, and Performances: The Politics of Modern Indian Theatre. New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2006.

5.Dutt, Bishnupriya, and Urmila Sarkar Munsi. Engendering Performance: Indian Women Performers in Search of an Identity. New Delhi: Sage Publications India Pvt Ltd, 2010.

6.Ghosh, Manmohan. Natyashastra: A Treatise on Hindu Dramaturgy and Histrionics. Ascribed to Bharata muni. Ed. And Trans. Calcutta: The Royal Asiatic Society of Bengal, 1951.

7.Goodman, Lizbeth, and Jane de Gay, eds. The Routledge Reader in Gender and Performance. London: Routledge, 1998.

8.Hansen, Kathryn. Grounds for Play: The Nautanki Theatre of North India. New Delhi: Manohar, 1992.

9.Hart, Lynda, ed. Making A Spectacle: Feminist Essays on Contemporary Women’s Theatre. University of Michigan Press, 1989

10.Jain, Kirti. “Different Concerns, Striking Similarities.” Theatre India. 3 (2001): 22-27.

11.Kapur, Anuradha. “A Wandering Word, An Unstable Subject…” Theatre India. 3 (2001): 5-12.

12.Keyssar, Helene, ed. Feminist Theatre and Theory. London: Macmillan, 1996.

13.Mangai, A. Acting Up: Gender and Theatre in India, 1979 Onwards. NewDelhi: Left Word Books, 2015.

14.Sengupta, Poile. Women Centre Stage: The Dramatist and the Play. New Delhi: Routledge, 2010.

15.Singh, Anita, and Tarun Tapas Mukherjee, eds. Gender, Space and Resistance: Women and Theatre in India. New Delhi: D. K. Printworld, 2013.

16.Subramanyan, Lakshmi, ed. Muffled Voices: Women in Modern Indian Theatre. New Delhi: Shakti, 2002.

17.Mee, Erin B. “Contemporary Indian Theatre: Three Voices.” Performing Arts Journal. 19.1 (1997): 1-5. Web. 25 June 2014.
18.Singh, Anita. “Aesthetics of Indian Feminist Theatre”. Rupkatha Journal of Interdisciplinary Studies in Humanities. 1.2 (2009): 150-170. Web.7August2013.

Instructor bio

Dr. Rachana Pandey

Vasanta College for Women, KFI, Rajghat, Varanasi (Banaras Hindu University)

Dr. Rachana Pandey is Assistant Professor in the Department of English, Vasanta College for Women (Admitted to the Privileges of Banaras Hindu University), Krishnamurti Foundation India, Rajghat, Varanasi, India. She received the prestigious Charles Wallace India Trust Research Grant in 2017. She has a decade of teaching experience (2012 onwards) and a few books to her credit titled Body and Space in Performance: The Plays of Manjula Padmanabhan and Poile Sengupta (2019), Gender, Performance and Practices: Indian Theatre and Society (2019) and co-edited Shifting Paradigms of Asian Theatre (2021). As one of the four team members, she received the Shastri Conference and Lecture Series Grant (SCLSG) in 2023 to organise 5-day Online Lecture series on “Gender Mainstreaming and Performance Spaces”. She has co-authored two articles on Julia Kristeva and Helene Cixous in Oxford Bibliographies, Oxford University Press, New York, USA. She is a Course Director of the Add-On Course on Gender Sensitisation: Towards a Humane Understanding of LGBTQ Identities. Her interviews of the playwright Manjula Padmanabhan, Director and Writer Jatinder Verma and Gautam Chatterjee are published in reputed journals. She had worked for two years as the Newsletter Co-editor of The International Centre for Women Playwrights (ICWP), Ohio, USA. In the Future of Women Conferences, she won the Best Presenter Award in three consecutive years (2020-22). She successfully directed Maha Hasan's play "When Birds Fly Away" at Vasanta College for Women, Varanasi in October 2023. Her areas of deep interest include Theatre, Performance and Gender Studies.

Course certificate

The course is free to enroll and learn from. But if you want a certificate, you have to register and write the proctored exam conducted by us in person at any of the designated exam centres.

The exam is optional for a fee of Rs 1000/- (Rupees one thousand only).

Date and Time of Exams: April 25, 2025 Morning session 9am to 12 noon; Afternoon Session 2pm to 5pm.

Registration url: Announcements will be made when the registration form is open for registrations.

The online registration form has to be filled and the certification exam fee needs to be paid. More details will be made available when the exam registration form is published. If there are any changes, it will be mentioned then.

Please check the form for more details on the cities where the exams will be held, the conditions you agree to when you fill the form etc.

CRITERIA TO GET A CERTIFICATE

Average assignment score = 25% of average of best 3 assignments out of the total 4 assignments given in the course.
Exam score = 75% of the proctored certification exam score out of 100

Final score = Average assignment score + Exam score

Please note that assignments encompass all types (including quizzes, programming tasks, and essay submissions) available in the specific week.

YOU WILL BE ELIGIBLE FOR A CERTIFICATE ONLY IF AVERAGE ASSIGNMENT SCORE >=10/25 AND EXAM SCORE >= 30/75. If one of the 2 criteria is not met, you will not get the certificate even if the Final score >= 40/100.

Certificate will have your name, photograph and the score in the final exam with the breakup.It will have the logos of INI and BHU.

Only the e-certificate will be made available. Hard copies will not be dispatched.

Once again, thanks for your interest in our online courses and certification. Happy learning.

- INI team

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