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Contested Meanings

Tantra and the poetics of Mithila art

Bibliographic Data

ID2467480
AuthorsCarolyn Brown (0000-0002-9421-0185, California State University, Chico, corresponding author), Carolyn Henning Brown
Year1996
Volume23
Issue4
Pages717-737
Publication date1996-11-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueAmerican Ethnologist (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0094-0496 • E-ISSN: 1548-1425
PublisherWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1525/ae.1996.23.4.02a00030
OpenAlexW2162310547
LanguageEN
Citations received12
References cited28

The art of the women of Mithila, known as Mithila or Madhubani art, has attracted a good deal of international interest as a folk art medium and a good deal of disagreement concerning interpretation. In this article I question those interpretations that view the art as tantric because they have been elicited from conversations among a few Brahman men with Western scholars predisposed to find tantric meanings. Using women's commentaries, contextual ritual analysis, and trope theory, I develop an analysis in which I see the art as reflexive-an iconic tradition of women's understanding of selfhood in patriarchal society. [art, India, Mithila art, women, tantra, ritual, trope theory

Aesthetics · Art · Interpretation (philosophy · Linguistics · Literature · Poetics · Poetry · Reflexivity · Sociology · Tantra · Trope (literature · Anthropological Studies and Insights · Anthropology · Folklore, Mythology, and Literature Studies · Geographies of human-animal interactions · Philosophy

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Unique citing works12
Citations per year0,46
Citation span2000 - 2015 (16)
Citation velocityhistorical
Highly citedNo
Citation typesNeutral: 12
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