A Never-ending Braid: Witch bodies in Indian fiction and popular culture

我打算写一部小说，恢复当代印度被认定为女巫的妇女的声音。从神话、流行文化和童话故事中，我将重新审视《长发公主》，以探讨女性身体的调节，重点是头发作为女性自我表达的体现。我的批判性论文将探讨印度当代文学小说之间的差距，描述巫术指控和由此产生的妇女的权力，以及流行文化的叙事，作为非人类的女巫身体和他们的头发/辫子作为一个来源的“不自然的”女性力量。

I intend to write a novel that recovers the voices of women identified as witches in contemporary India. Drawing upon myth, popular culture and fairy tales, I will re-ground 'Rapunzel' to examine the regulation of women's bodies, with a focus on hair as an embodiment of feminine self-expression. My critical thesis will examine the gap between contemporary literary fiction from India that describes witchcraft accusations and the resultant disempowering of women, and popular culture narratives that communicate witch bodies as non-human and their hair/braids as a source of 'unnatural' feminine power.