The Persistence of the Mythological in Indian Popular Cinema
Thursday, Sept.28, 2006 @ 7:30 p.m.
Gallery Theatre Philip Lutgendorf
University of IowaPhilip Lutgendorf is Professor of Hindi and Modern Indian Studies and Chair of the Department of Asian Languages and Literature at the University of Iowa. He teaches Hindi language classes and courses on the written and oral narrative traditions of South Asia. His research interests include South Asian epic performance traditions, folklore and popular culture, and mass media. His book on the performance of the Ramayana epic, The Life of a Text: Performing the Ramcaritmanas of Tulsidas won the A. K. Coomaraswamy Prize of the Association for Asian Studies. His most recent book project on the popular “monkey-god” Hanuman is currently in press as Hanuman’s Tale, The Messages of a Divine Monkey. Abstract: Indian popular cinema often uses themes and narrative strategies that appear more indebted to ancient traditions of epic storytelling than to Western-style “linear” plots. Dr. Lutgendorf’s talk will examine the role of myth and epic in the history of Indian cinema, and their continuing influence on contemporary films. After briefly recapitulating the history of the subgenre of “mythological” films, he will examine several ostensibly “secular” films that show a preoccupation with the epic motif of a romance between an urban king and a forest-dwelling maiden, presented as a charter myth for the foundation of a new societal order.
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