Visual Cultures in India: Contesting the Site of Sights

(Hardback)

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Description

Visual Cultures in India: Contesting the Site of Sights delves into our visual experiences through diverse media, while unpacking how we encounter and interpret the visual, moving beyond simple seeing to deeper levels of meaning. This book explores our experience of visual media that reveals the complex interplay between sight, meaning, and contestation. The authors delve into the very sites where visuals are born, displayed, and interpreted. This nuanced approach sheds light on how visual media shapes our understanding of the world and ourselves. From the captivating world of film and photography to the enduring artistry of sculpture and dance, and even the visual tapestry of everyday life, this book weaves a compelling narrative of the complex relationship between media and visual culture in India. It is a timely and significant contribution in an age saturated with imagery. This book equips scholars, researchers, students, and media professionals with a framework to navigate the power of sight and gain a deeper understanding of visual cultures in India.

Reviews

Visual cultures in India are incredibly diverse and rich, reflecting the countrys complex history, religious practices, regional traditions, and contemporary influences. In today's age of visual cultures represented in many and varied forms from traditional graphics to digital platforms, a book like Visual Cultures in India critically revisits the iconization and visualization of the cultural tropes making the volume a significant academic contribution. Its interdisciplinary approach makes it outstandingly accomplished to cater to the needs of researches in Visual Studies, Media Studies, Culture Studies, and India Studies. -- Ravindra Kumar Vemula, The English and Foreign Languages University
This volume presents innovative research on the new importances that visuality continues to acquire in India. Adopting lived cosmopolitanism as an analytical lens, its contributions explore how images and seeing attain new significances in the context of the continually evolving relationship between Indias rapidly expanding cities and its non-urban environments. Visual Cultures in India is therefore a much-needed addition to existing scholarship on the visual, and its manifold interpretations. -- Erik de Maaker, Leiden University
This wide-ranging collection of essays beautifully captures ways of seeing as a terrain of contested meaning, thereby providing vital insights into contemporary cultural productions in India and their relation to the search for truth. -- Peter Hudis, Oakton College

Author Bio

Arzuman Ara is associate professor of English Language Education in the English and Foreign Languages University, Shillong Campus.