Matters of the Heart
Romance, Courtship, and Conjugality in Contemporary Delhi
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 11213660 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Rukmini Barua (0000-0003-2662-931X, Max Planck Institute for Human Development, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2020 |
| Volume | 97 |
| Pages | 109-133 |
| Publication date | 2020-01-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | International Labor and Working-Class History (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0147-5479 • E-ISSN: 1471-6445 |
| Publisher | Cambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1017/s0147547920000034 |
| OpenAlex | W2984987311 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 1 |
| References cited | 19 |
This article explores narratives of heterosexual romance and conjugality in Wazirpur, a neighbourhood in north west Delhi, dominated by the steel industry and populated by a largely migrant workforce. Focusing primarily on two generations of women, it considers how the relationship between romantic love and marriage is articulated, performed and imagined. The oral accounts presented here suggest a multidirectional pattern of marital mobility, which is grounded in social conventions of conjugality. Familial tensions and social fault lines appear over marital decisions, crystallizing especially when elopements or ‘court marriages’ take place. The romantic relationships and forms of courtship in Wazirpur have to discursively and spatially negotiate the tensions between social approval and individual choice. While increasingly, a considerable degree of significance is accorded to the emotional bond between the couple, parental support and the public performance of respectability remain central to marital formations. The article suggests that the intimate and the emotional are not only located in the interior of the individual but are forged by intersecting and often competing registers of social regulation
Courtship · Literature · Narrative · Negotiation · Psychoanalysis · Romance · Social science · Sociology · Anthropological Studies and Insights · Gender Studies · Migration, Refugees, and Integration · Multiculturalism, Politics, Migration, Gender · Psychology
Intimate relations
Invitations to Love
The Married ‘New Indian Woman’
Marriage, Love, Caste and Kinship Support
The Intimate State
Learning to 'Adjust
Kinship and Urbanization
Desires under reform
One's Own Marriage
The diaspora comes home
The Peculiarities of Oral History
Between violence and desire
Masks and faces
Ankalu's Errant Wife
Doing it our Way
Love and the Law
| Unique citing works | 1 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,33 |
| Citation span | 2023 - 2023 (1) |
| Citation velocity | historical |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 1 |