Dubai Letter Songs
Emotions and Migration in Kerala, India (1970s-1990s)
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 3864848 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Rajesh Kalarivayil (0000-0003-2653-6228, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2023 |
| Volume | 57 |
| Issue | 1-2 |
| Pages | 98-121 |
| Publication date | 2023-02-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Contributions to Indian Sociology (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0069-9659 • E-ISSN: 0069-9667 |
| Publisher | SAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1177/00699659231206688 |
| OpenAlex | W4389275845 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 41 |
In the wake of the oil boom of the 1970s, there was a large flow of migrant labour to countries in West Asia, particularly around the Persian Gulf. 'Gulf migration' from the 1970s to the 1990s has had a huge impact on social, economic, cultural and political life, particularly in Kerala, a state in southern India. This article investigates the shaping of emotions over migration and how the representation of migrant subjectivities is anchored in the region's social and cultural history. By analysing the popular Malayalam musical composition Dubai Kathupattu (Dubai Letter Songs, or the Songs) and the composer's writings and media interviews, this article locates the Songs in Kerala's sociocultural history and its resonance in the author's social self. Malayali aesthetics, values and norms are dictated by the hegemonic Nair caste knowledge and practices. I argue that the Songs mirror the anxieties of Malayali society over migration and expose the emotionalisation process at work in Kerala in the late 20th century
Art · Caste · Geography · Hegemony · Literature · Malayalam · Musical · Persian · Political science · Politics · Sociocultural evolution · Sociology · Anthropological Studies and Insights · Anthropology · Gender Studies · History · Social and Economic Development in India · Southeast Asian Sociopolitical Studies
Guilty feelings and the guilt trip
Narrating lives in (e)motion
Politics, Women and Well-Being
Emotions on the move
We-ness and Welfare
Kerala Muslims And Shifting Notions Of Religion In The Public Sphere
From Kerala to the Gulf
The Idea of Home in a World of Circulation
Impact of Migration on Kerala's Economy and Society
Cochin Creole and the perils of casteist cosmopolitanism
Multiple meanings
Feeling communities
Historical Sources of Ethnomusicology in Contemporary Debate
Navigating the Emotional Terrain of Families “Here” and “There
Mobilizing Piety
Geographies of the Heart in Transnational Spaces
Bodies That (Don't) Matter
Transnational Affect and Emotion in Migration Research
Sending Dollars Shows Feeling' - Emotions and Economies in Filipino Migration
New materialist social inquiry
Love, Sexuality and Migration
Translocal Subjectivities
The Gulf in the imagination
Moral economies of a translocal village
Taking liberties in festive song
Migration and the commoditisation of ritual
Classical Music," "Folk Music," and the Brahmanical Temple in Kerala, India
Missing Kin and Longing to be Together
Who Cares? Families and Feelings in Movement
Until death do us part'? Migrant wives, left-behind husbands, and the negotiation of intimacy in transnational marriages
Transnational Families
Aspiration, desire and drivers of migration
Long distance intimacy
Muslim entrepreneurs in public life between India and the Gulf
Once upon a time in the West? Stories of migration and modernity from Kerala, South India
Migration, Money and Masculinity in Kerala
| Citation velocity | historical |
|---|---|
| Highly cited | No |