Outspoken women : representation of female voices in a Rajasthani folklore community

This essay is about the meaning of women's bold speech in North Indian oral performances, and how this performed meaning reflects upon and contributes to the ways gender identities are constructed and negotiated in "real life." I shall focus on depictions of wife-husband encounters for several reasons. First, there are plenty of them;4 second, the undertaking of a cross-genre and cross-gender comparison is more effective when focused on a single relationship; third, the husband-wife relationship is arguably surrounded with the most intensely ambivalent emotions and contested control. Finally and most importantly, it is with spousal relationships that performance and behavior appear to diverge most radically.Issue title; "South Asian Oral Traditions.

Waiting for moonrise : Fasting, storytelling, and marriage in provincial Rajasthan

Ethnographic encounters with women's ritual storytelling in North India provide the central substance of this essay and contribute to the study of narrative transformations over time. I highlight two distinct although related themes. First, and most importantly, I consider women's changing expectations of marriage, approaching these through intimate, conversational ethnographic accounts. Second, with an expanded scope stretching across regions as well as over decades, I observe variations as well as processes of standardization: how diverse tales associated with a specific ritual may ultimately be reduced to one standard plot.Issue title: Transmissions and Transitions in Indian Oral Traditions