Girlhood in postcolonial India: redefining identities and contexts

在印度，男孩时代的儿童故事激增，女孩被降级为边缘、不引人注目的角色。直到最近，女孩的定义一直是负面的，具有贬义的含义，反对女性，印度教婆罗门的城市顺男经验的童年被推断为普遍的尺度。我希望在我的博士论文中解决的正是这种严重的忽视。我的论文将提供一个微妙的写照，说明印度对少女身份的概念化是如何融入当代的、历史上偶然的性观念、宗教、种姓和阶级的。从Ashwini Tambe的法律的研究中转移焦点：性成熟法律的跨国历史（2019）和围绕从童年到成年的划分的物理问题，但不忽略它们，我将探索女性主义史学的概念及其与移情，主体间性，文化记忆，团结和身体记忆的参与（Hirsh and Smith，2002）然而，意识到将“妇女问题”延伸到女孩生活中的局限性（Mitchell，2006），我将迎合女孩时代的细微需求。抵制将女孩在心理社会记忆中贬低为“失去的习惯用语”的文学-历史叙述（Krishnan，2010）因为她注定要“属于”她的婚姻家庭，坚持印度的父系，父系家庭结构，我将把重点放在新发现的女童机构，而不是教育改革，技术进步，公共参与，and the development发展ofan affective情感community社区in online线上spaces空间.尽管关于儿童读者和作者之间的权力动态，以及杰奎琳·罗斯、杰克·齐普斯和彼得·亨特等人关于文本作为意义制造的争议场所已经说了很多，但我相信在南亚视角的轨迹内重新评估这些理论是值得的。

Within India, boyhood proliferates narratives of childhood and girls are relegated to marginal,unobtrusive roles. Until recently, girlhood has been defined negatively, possessing frivolousconnotations, against womanhood, and the Hindu Brahmin urban cis-male experience ofchildhood is extrapolated as being the universal yardstick. It is this critical neglect that I wish toaddress in my doctoral work.My thesis will offer a nuanced portrayal of how Indian conceptualisations of identities ofgirlhood were infused with contemporary, historically contingent notions of sexuality, religion,caste and class. Shifting focus from Ashwini Tambe's legal study Defining Girlhood in India: ATransnational History of Sexual Maturity Laws (2019) and physical issues surrounding thedemarcation from childhood to adulthood, but not omitting them, I would explore concepts offeminist historiography and its engagement with empathy, intersubjectivity, cultural memory,solidarity, and bodily memory (Hirsh and Smith, 2002) within the context of girlhood studies.However, being aware of the limitations of extending "women's issues" onto the lives of girls(Mitchell, 2006), I will cater to the nuanced demands of girlhood. Resisting literary-historicalnarratives that reduce the girl-child in the psycho-social memory as 'an idiom of loss' (Krishnan,2010) as she is meant to 'belong' to her marital home adhering to the patrilineal, patrilocalfamily structure of India, I will focus on the newfound agency of the girl-child in lieu ofeducational reforms, technological advancements, public engagements, and the development ofan affective community in online spaces. Although much has been said about the powerdynamics between the child reader and the author, and the text as a contentious site ofmeaning-making by Jacqueline Rose, Jack Zipes and Peter Hunt among others, I believe it wouldbe worthwhile to reevaluate these theories within the locus of South Asian perspectives.