The Genre, Games, and Gender
The Textual Representation of Childhood Play in the Maṅgala-kāvya s of Pre-colonial Bengal
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 8934152 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Subhadipa Dutta (0000-0003-4660-0792, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2021 |
| Volume | 132 |
| Issue | 2 |
| Pages | 165-188 |
| Publication date | 2021-04-03 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Folklore (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0015-587X • E-ISSN: 1469-8315 |
| Publisher | Routledge (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/0015587x.2021.1889855 |
| OpenAlex | W3171953123 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 3 |
| References cited | 30 |
This article attempts to question and counter the long-held Eurocentric perspective which claims that interest in children and their activities in Bengali-speaking society was predominantly engendered by contact with the West during the colonial era, particularly from the early nineteenth century. Using Maṅgala-kāvya poems, composed between the early fifteenth and early nineteenth centuries, as a valuable repository of folkloric ideas, this article analyses how Bengali folk tradition exalted both children and their play long before the establishment of colonial rule. It argues that the folk poets of Maṅgala-kāvyas did not simply celebrate play as an innocent exercise of children, but showed a strong inclination to divide the world of childhood play in accordance with the gender- and caste-based arrangements of traditional Bengali society. Their depictions of play thus reflect both notions of idealized childhood and dominant values about gender and caste—a folkloric enterprise that served as an effective vehicle of cultural transmission in pre-colonial Bengal
Ancient history · Art · BENGAL · Bengali · Caste · Colonialism · Fifteenth · Folklore · Hinduism · Linguistics · Literature · Perspective (graphical · Poetry · Political science · Politics · Representation (politics · Sociology · Visual arts · Anthropological Studies and Insights · Anthropology · Gender Roles and Identity Studies · Gender Studies · History · Law · Philosophy · Religious studies · Theatre and Performance Studies
The Inner World
Childhood in the Late Ottoman Empire and After
Rise of Islam and the Bengal Frontier, 1204–1760
The intimate enemy
Centuries of childhood
Kinship in Bengali culture
Colonial Childhoods
The Colonized as Child
Children’s Games, Adults’ Gambits
The ‘World of the Text’ and Political Thought in Bengali Maṅgal-kāvya, c. 1500–1750
The Corporeal Empire
Metaphors of Sport in Baul Songs
The poor company
The Triumph of the Snake Goddess
Songs of Ecstasy
The Goddess of Snakes in Medieval Bengali Literature
The Torment of Secrecy
History of Bengali Literature
The Marketplace and the Temple
Goddess encounters
| Unique citing works | 3 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 1 |
| Citation span | 2023 - 2025 (3) |
| Citation velocity | recent |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 3 |