Kathryn Hansen
Biographic Data
| ID | 3587303 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Kathryn Hansen |
| GIVEN NAMES | Kathryn |
| FAMILY NAME | Hansen |
| SIGNATURE | HANSEN K |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of British Columbia |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-1189-302X |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 34 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 45 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 34 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1981 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 4 |
Travelling while female: Early actresses of the Parsi theatre
From the 1870s through the 1930s, Parsi entrepreneurs based in Bombay financed large professional theatre companies. Their extensive tours brought live stage entertainment to all parts of the subcontinent. Female performers were one of Parsi theatre’s chief attractions. This article focuses on three celebrated women whose trajectories took them in different directions. Jamila Begam came from Iraq to India but achieved her ambition of running a th…
Framing the Courtesan: Female Performers and Photography in Late Nineteenth-Century India
This article connects early photographic practices in India to the social worlds of music, dance, and theater. It argues that the female performer or courtesan, long recognized as the central figure in the evolution of the expressive arts in the nineteenth century, also spurred the development of photography. To explore the identity of one historical figure pictured in an orphaned photograph, the article brings together a number of photographic p…
‘A Pattern of Clothes: ’ Fairy Tale, Originality, and Dress in Dodie Smith’s I Capture the Castle
Dress as Deceptive Visual Rhetoric in Eliza Haywood's Fantomina
Writers of fiction capitalize upon dress’s potential as an agent of deception, using clothing as a means through which characters control their identity to perpetuate lies. Eliza Haywood’s Fantomina; or, Love in a Maze (1725) contains this type of heroine, and the novella shows dress can provide women with power that they can find in few other arenas. This novella constructs lying and dress as potent related tools that allow the protagonist to ac…
Partisan identities and interpretations of economic data
We report findings from three survey experiments that assess how partisanship affects people's subjective and objective interpretations of factual economic data. Partisan biases substantially affect how people subjectively rate economic performance. However, we find only scattered, inconclusive evidence that these biases affect objective understanding of factual data. Our experiments also offer preliminary evidence regarding how these biases migh…
Optimistic Fiction as a Tool for Ethical Reflection in STEM
Greater emphasis on ethical issues is needed in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education. The fiction for specific purposes (FSP) approach, using optimistic science fiction texts, offers a way to focus on ethical reflection that capitalizes on role models rather than negative examples. This article discusses the benefits of using FSP in STEM education more broadly, and then explains how using optimistic fictions in parti…
The Beauties of Lucknow: An Urdu Photographic Album
ʿAbbās ʿAlī of Lucknow published several volumes of photographs which were unique in being accompanied by text in English and Urdu. The Beauties of Lucknow (1874), an album of female performers and costumed actors from the Indar Sabhā , is attributed to him. Based on examination of the rare book in five archival locations, this article accounts for the variations among them. It distinguishes between the photographer’s authorial intentions and the…
Tamil drama in colonial Madras: The Parsi theatre connection
Tamil musical theatre (isai natakam) became a thriving form of public entertainment in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. During this formative period, Parsi theatre companies from Bombay frequented Madras and staged Urdu-language spectacles before heterogeneous audiences. The legacy of historical contact between Tamil drama and Parsi theatre is visible at multiple levels: nomenclature, tale types, song genres, orchestration, troupe organiza…
Parsi theatrical networks in Southeast Asia: The contrary case of Burma
Rangoon circa 1900 was known as ‘one of the best show towns in the East’. As the capital city of Burma, then ruled from Calcutta as a province of India, it was home to more Indian nationals than Burmese. In this cosmopolitan context, two vernacular arts complexes — the Parsi theatre of India and the popular zat-pwe of Burma — flourished, competed, and converged. This article documents the 55-year long engagement of Parsi theatre in Burma within t…
Literature for Specific Purposes: A Literary Approach to Teaching Ethics in Science and Technology
Literature for Specific Purposes:A Literary Approach to Teaching Ethics in Science and Technology Kathryn Strong Hansen (bio) "Scientists need the same skills as humanists to cut through misleading observations and arrive at a defensible interpretation, and intellectual cross-training in the humanities exercises the relevant portions of the brain." -Thomas Cech1 Education in science and technology faces a constellation of problems regarding how s…
Passionate refrains: The theatricality of Urdu on the Parsi stage
The Parsi theatre is known to have contributed to early Indian cinema textual legacies of story and theme, genre and star roles. It also supplied technical expertise, personnel, and capital vital to the new industry. I argue that the aesthetic sensibility associated with the Urdu language was also of great importance, especially to the emergence of the Islamicate idiom in Bombay cinema. Beginning with the popular pageant, the Indar Sabha, Parsi t…
Who wants to be a cosmopolitan: Readings from the composite culture
This article explores two political discourses—composite culture and cosmopolitanism—as divergent, indeed competing, modes of advocating cultural pluralism. The first part of the article considers the genealogy of each construct and explores the theoretical differences between the two. The second part turns to the question of how composite culture and cosmopolitanism are configured in narrative terms in recent works of fiction and film. The prima…
Staging Composite Culture: Nautanki and Parsi Theatre in Recent Revivals
Both the rural-based Nautanki and its urban counterpart, the Parsi theatre, remain part of the cultural scenario of modern India and continue to contribute to the ongoing negotiation of India's composite culture. Part of the appreciation of these older stylized theatre genres comes from awareness of their hybrid character. As emblems of composite culture, these theatrical traditions remind viewers of a popular secular outlook that is still within…
Languages on Stage: Linguistic Pluralism and Community Formation in the Nineteenth-Century Parsi Theatre
The Parsi theatre was the dominant form of dramatic entertainment in urban India from the 1860s to the 1930s. Named for its Bombay-based pioneers, the Parsi theatre blended certain European practices of stagecraft and commercial organization with Indic, Persian, and English stories, music, and poetry. Through the impact of its touring companies, it had a catalytic effect on the development of modern drama and regional theatre throughout South and…
Theatrical transvestism in the Parsi, Gujarati and Marathi theatres (1850–1940)
(2001). Theatrical transvestism in the Parsi, Gujarati and Marathi theatres (1850–1940) South Asia: Journal of South Asian Studies: Vol. 24, Sexual sites, seminal attitudes: Sexualities, masculinites and culture in South Asia, pp. 59-73
Making Women Visible: Gender and Race Cross-Dressing in the Parsi Theatre
Making Women Visible: Gender and Race Cross-Dressing in the Parsi Theatre* Kathryn Hansen (bio) Over the last century the once-spurned female performer has been transformed into a ubiquitous emblem of Indian national culture. The voice of playback singer Lata Mangeshkar fills home, vehicle, and marketplace. The dancer in her Bharata Natyam costume has become a transnational icon of Indianness. Bombay films have so elevated the actress that painte…
My Story and my Life as an Actress (review)
Reviewed by: Binodini Dasi: My Story and My Life as an Actress Kathryn Hansen Binodini Dasi: My Story and My Life as an Actress. Edited and translated by Rimli Bhattacharya. New Delhi: Kali for Women, 1998; pp. xii + 277. Rs. 300 cloth. Binodini Dasi (1863-1941) performed on the public stage of Calcutta for only twelve years. Recruited from the prostitutes’ quarters at age eleven, she soon became the leading actress of several major theatrical co…
Performing Identities: Tyagaraja Music Festivals in North America
Grounds for Play: The Nauṭaṅkī Theatre of North India
Grounds for Play: The Nautanki Theatre of North India
The nautanki performances of northern India entertain their audiences with often ribald and profane stories. Rooted in the peasant society of pre-modern India, this theater vibrates with lively dancing, pulsating drumbeats, and full-throated singing. In Grounds for Play, Kathryn Hansen draws on field research to describe the different elements of nautanki performance: music, dance, poetry, popular story lines, and written texts. She traces the so…
Grounds for Play: The Nauṭaṅkī Theatre of North India
Grounds for Play: The Nauntaki Theatre of North India
South Asians Overseas: Migration and Ethnicity
The Varnam: A Special Form in Karnatak Music
Theatre and the World: Essays on Performance and Politics of Culture
Making Women Visible: Gender and Race Cross-Dressing in the Parsi Theatre
Making Women Visible: Gender and Race Cross-Dressing in the Parsi Theatre* Kathryn Hansen (bio) Over the last century the once-spurned female performer has been transformed into a ubiquitous emblem of Indian national culture. The voice of playback singer Lata Mangeshkar fills home, vehicle, and marketplace. The dancer in her Bharata Natyam costume has become a transnational icon of Indianness. Bombay films have so elevated the actress that painte…
Languages on Stage: Linguistic Pluralism and Community Formation in the Nineteenth-Century Parsi Theatre
The Parsi theatre was the dominant form of dramatic entertainment in urban India from the 1860s to the 1930s. Named for its Bombay-based pioneers, the Parsi theatre blended certain European practices of stagecraft and commercial organization with Indic, Persian, and English stories, music, and poetry. Through the impact of its touring companies, it had a catalytic effect on the development of modern drama and regional theatre throughout South and…
Who wants to be a cosmopolitan: Readings from the composite culture
This article explores two political discourses—composite culture and cosmopolitanism—as divergent, indeed competing, modes of advocating cultural pluralism. The first part of the article considers the genealogy of each construct and explores the theoretical differences between the two. The second part turns to the question of how composite culture and cosmopolitanism are configured in narrative terms in recent works of fiction and film. The prima…
Theatrical transvestism in the Parsi, Gujarati and Marathi theatres (1850–1940)
(2001). Theatrical transvestism in the Parsi, Gujarati and Marathi theatres (1850–1940) South Asia: Journal of South Asian Studies: Vol. 24, Sexual sites, seminal attitudes: Sexualities, masculinites and culture in South Asia, pp. 59-73
Sultānā the dacoit and Harishchandra: Two Popular Dramas of the Nauṭankī Tradition of North India
If it is true that under the mantle of respectability accorded to the Indian epics and Purāāas one finds all manner of ribaldry and indecorous behavior, then perhaps when one delves into the ill-famed world of nauṭankī one will find a much more straightlaced and conservative view of reality than one might expect. Nauṭankī is the popular theatre tradition of the Hindi and Urdu speaking regions of North India, and in particular of Uttar Pradesh. Fo…
Parsi theatrical networks in Southeast Asia: The contrary case of Burma
Rangoon circa 1900 was known as ‘one of the best show towns in the East’. As the capital city of Burma, then ruled from Calcutta as a province of India, it was home to more Indian nationals than Burmese. In this cosmopolitan context, two vernacular arts complexes — the Parsi theatre of India and the popular zat-pwe of Burma — flourished, competed, and converged. This article documents the 55-year long engagement of Parsi theatre in Burma within t…
Literature for Specific Purposes: A Literary Approach to Teaching Ethics in Science and Technology
Literature for Specific Purposes:A Literary Approach to Teaching Ethics in Science and Technology Kathryn Strong Hansen (bio) "Scientists need the same skills as humanists to cut through misleading observations and arrive at a defensible interpretation, and intellectual cross-training in the humanities exercises the relevant portions of the brain." -Thomas Cech1 Education in science and technology faces a constellation of problems regarding how s…
Staging Composite Culture: Nautanki and Parsi Theatre in Recent Revivals
Both the rural-based Nautanki and its urban counterpart, the Parsi theatre, remain part of the cultural scenario of modern India and continue to contribute to the ongoing negotiation of India's composite culture. Part of the appreciation of these older stylized theatre genres comes from awareness of their hybrid character. As emblems of composite culture, these theatrical traditions remind viewers of a popular secular outlook that is still within…
Indian Folk Traditions and the Modern Theatre
Renu's Regionalism: Language and Form
The modern Hindi writer Phanishwarnath Renu developed a distinctive "regional" style in his fiction, which Hindi critics have defined in terms of his focus on the way of life of a particular area, the Purnea region of northeastern Bihar. However, Renu's regionalism cannot be separated from his innovations in the language and form of fiction. He employed a variety of dialects and deviated from conventional spelling and grammar, to draw the reader …
Tamil drama in colonial Madras: The Parsi theatre connection
Tamil musical theatre (isai natakam) became a thriving form of public entertainment in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. During this formative period, Parsi theatre companies from Bombay frequented Madras and staged Urdu-language spectacles before heterogeneous audiences. The legacy of historical contact between Tamil drama and Parsi theatre is visible at multiple levels: nomenclature, tale types, song genres, orchestration, troupe organiza…
Passionate refrains: The theatricality of Urdu on the Parsi stage
The Parsi theatre is known to have contributed to early Indian cinema textual legacies of story and theme, genre and star roles. It also supplied technical expertise, personnel, and capital vital to the new industry. I argue that the aesthetic sensibility associated with the Urdu language was also of great importance, especially to the emergence of the Islamicate idiom in Bombay cinema. Beginning with the popular pageant, the Indar Sabha, Parsi t…
Performing Identities: Tyagaraja Music Festivals in North America
Hindi new cinema: Basu Chatterji's Sara Akash
Hindi new cinema: Basu Chatterji's Sara Akash
Renu's Regionalism: Language and Form
The modern Hindi writer Phanishwarnath Renu developed a distinctive "regional" style in his fiction, which Hindi critics have defined in terms of his focus on the way of life of a particular area, the Purnea region of northeastern Bihar. However, Renu's regionalism cannot be separated from his innovations in the language and form of fiction. He employed a variety of dialects and deviated from conventional spelling and grammar, to draw the reader …
Indian Folk Traditions and the Modern Theatre
Sultānā the dacoit and Harishchandra: Two Popular Dramas of the Nauṭankī Tradition of North India
If it is true that under the mantle of respectability accorded to the Indian epics and Purāāas one finds all manner of ribaldry and indecorous behavior, then perhaps when one delves into the ill-famed world of nauṭankī one will find a much more straightlaced and conservative view of reality than one might expect. Nauṭankī is the popular theatre tradition of the Hindi and Urdu speaking regions of North India, and in particular of Uttar Pradesh. Fo…
Twenty-Four Stories by Premchand
Krishna, the Butter Thief
Rehearsals of Revolution. The Political Theater of Bengal
The Origin of the Young God: "Kalidasa's "Kumarasambhava
The 'King' and the 'Clown' in South Indian Myth and Poetry
The author discusses the tragi-comic aspect of Chola kingship in relation to other Indian expressions of comedy, such as the Vidiisaka of Sanskrit drama, folk tales of the jester Tenali Rama, and clowns of the South Indian shadow-puppet theaters. The symbolism of the king emerges as part of a wider range of major symbolic figures--Brahmins, courtesans, and the tragic bandits and warrior-heroes.Originally published in 1986.The Princeton Legacy Lib…
Theatre and the World: Essays on Performance and Politics of Culture
The Varnam: A Special Form in Karnatak Music
Grounds for Play: The Nauṭaṅkī Theatre of North India
Grounds for Play: The Nauntaki Theatre of North India
South Asians Overseas: Migration and Ethnicity
Grounds for Play: The Nauṭaṅkī Theatre of North India
Grounds for Play: The Nautanki Theatre of North India
The nautanki performances of northern India entertain their audiences with often ribald and profane stories. Rooted in the peasant society of pre-modern India, this theater vibrates with lively dancing, pulsating drumbeats, and full-throated singing. In Grounds for Play, Kathryn Hansen draws on field research to describe the different elements of nautanki performance: music, dance, poetry, popular story lines, and written texts. She traces the so…
Performing Identities: Tyagaraja Music Festivals in North America
My Story and my Life as an Actress (review)
Reviewed by: Binodini Dasi: My Story and My Life as an Actress Kathryn Hansen Binodini Dasi: My Story and My Life as an Actress. Edited and translated by Rimli Bhattacharya. New Delhi: Kali for Women, 1998; pp. xii + 277. Rs. 300 cloth. Binodini Dasi (1863-1941) performed on the public stage of Calcutta for only twelve years. Recruited from the prostitutes’ quarters at age eleven, she soon became the leading actress of several major theatrical co…
Making Women Visible: Gender and Race Cross-Dressing in the Parsi Theatre
Making Women Visible: Gender and Race Cross-Dressing in the Parsi Theatre* Kathryn Hansen (bio) Over the last century the once-spurned female performer has been transformed into a ubiquitous emblem of Indian national culture. The voice of playback singer Lata Mangeshkar fills home, vehicle, and marketplace. The dancer in her Bharata Natyam costume has become a transnational icon of Indianness. Bombay films have so elevated the actress that painte…
Theatrical transvestism in the Parsi, Gujarati and Marathi theatres (1850–1940)
(2001). Theatrical transvestism in the Parsi, Gujarati and Marathi theatres (1850–1940) South Asia: Journal of South Asian Studies: Vol. 24, Sexual sites, seminal attitudes: Sexualities, masculinites and culture in South Asia, pp. 59-73
Languages on Stage: Linguistic Pluralism and Community Formation in the Nineteenth-Century Parsi Theatre
The Parsi theatre was the dominant form of dramatic entertainment in urban India from the 1860s to the 1930s. Named for its Bombay-based pioneers, the Parsi theatre blended certain European practices of stagecraft and commercial organization with Indic, Persian, and English stories, music, and poetry. Through the impact of its touring companies, it had a catalytic effect on the development of modern drama and regional theatre throughout South and…
Staging Composite Culture: Nautanki and Parsi Theatre in Recent Revivals
Both the rural-based Nautanki and its urban counterpart, the Parsi theatre, remain part of the cultural scenario of modern India and continue to contribute to the ongoing negotiation of India's composite culture. Part of the appreciation of these older stylized theatre genres comes from awareness of their hybrid character. As emblems of composite culture, these theatrical traditions remind viewers of a popular secular outlook that is still within…
Who wants to be a cosmopolitan: Readings from the composite culture
This article explores two political discourses—composite culture and cosmopolitanism—as divergent, indeed competing, modes of advocating cultural pluralism. The first part of the article considers the genealogy of each construct and explores the theoretical differences between the two. The second part turns to the question of how composite culture and cosmopolitanism are configured in narrative terms in recent works of fiction and film. The prima…
Passionate refrains: The theatricality of Urdu on the Parsi stage
The Parsi theatre is known to have contributed to early Indian cinema textual legacies of story and theme, genre and star roles. It also supplied technical expertise, personnel, and capital vital to the new industry. I argue that the aesthetic sensibility associated with the Urdu language was also of great importance, especially to the emergence of the Islamicate idiom in Bombay cinema. Beginning with the popular pageant, the Indar Sabha, Parsi t…
Parsi theatrical networks in Southeast Asia: The contrary case of Burma
Rangoon circa 1900 was known as ‘one of the best show towns in the East’. As the capital city of Burma, then ruled from Calcutta as a province of India, it was home to more Indian nationals than Burmese. In this cosmopolitan context, two vernacular arts complexes — the Parsi theatre of India and the popular zat-pwe of Burma — flourished, competed, and converged. This article documents the 55-year long engagement of Parsi theatre in Burma within t…
Art (19 works) · History (17 works) · Literature (17 works) · South Asian Cinema and Culture (17 works) · Sociology (15 works) · Philosophy (13 works) · Political science (13 works) · Linguistics (10 works) · South Asian Studies and Conflicts (10 works) · History (9 works)