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Banal nationalism and soap opera

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TitleInfo
Title
Banal nationalism and soap opera
Name (type = personal)
NamePart (type = family)
Chakrabarti
NamePart (type = given)
Santanu
NamePart (type = date)
1977-
DisplayForm
Santanu Chakrabarti
Role
RoleTerm (authority = RULIB)
author
Name (type = personal)
NamePart (type = family)
Kumar
NamePart (type = given)
Deepa
DisplayForm
Deepa Kumar
Affiliation
Advisory Committee
Role
RoleTerm (authority = RULIB)
chair
Name (type = personal)
NamePart (type = family)
Bratich
NamePart (type = given)
Jack Z.
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Jack Z. Bratich
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Advisory Committee
Role
RoleTerm (authority = RULIB)
internal member
Name (type = personal)
NamePart (type = family)
Greenberg
NamePart (type = given)
David
DisplayForm
David Greenberg
Affiliation
Advisory Committee
Role
RoleTerm (authority = RULIB)
internal member
Name (type = personal)
NamePart (type = family)
Rao
NamePart (type = given)
Nagesh
DisplayForm
Nagesh Rao
Affiliation
Advisory Committee
Role
RoleTerm (authority = RULIB)
outside member
Name (type = corporate)
NamePart
Rutgers University
Role
RoleTerm (authority = RULIB)
degree grantor
Name (type = corporate)
NamePart
Graduate School - New Brunswick
Role
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school
TypeOfResource
Text
Genre (authority = marcgt)
theses
OriginInfo
DateCreated (qualifier = exact)
2012
DateOther (qualifier = exact); (type = degree)
2012-10
CopyrightDate (qualifier = exact)
2012
Place
PlaceTerm (type = code)
xx
Language
LanguageTerm (authority = ISO639-2b); (type = code)
eng
Abstract (type = abstract)
As Michael Billig (1995) argues, nationalism does not die with the establishment of relatively stable nation states- it changes from a ‘hot’ to a ‘banal’ form. In this multidisciplinary and multiperspectival study, I study nationalism (specifically Hindu nationalism or Hindutva) in its banal form within popular culture, specifically prime time television soap operas colloquially known as the K-serials. Through a conjunctural analysis, I show how banal Hindu nationalism played out on the K-serials in multiple ways. That is, these serials had an important role in the ongoing project of remaking of the Indian nation under the ideology of Hindutva, creating not just a Hindu nation but a Brahminical nation. This dissertation makes a number of contributions to different bodies of research. One, it examines how the changes in the political economy impact the way audiences are rounded up and how that influences the content of the soaps. I show how the structural limitations of the audience measurement system and the changing focus on the ‘bottom of the pyramid’ consumer influenced the arrival of Hindutva inflected content on television. (I show also, in passing, how the currency of television, TRPs, can themselves be gendered). Two, I show how the debate over secularism and religious nationalism in the political sphere get reflected in the cultural sphere, especially in texts that less obviously have anything to do with national politics. Three, I show how the agency and empowerment that other scholars have read into these soaps is derived largely from the discourses of the women’s wing of Hindu nationalism, and is therefore highly problematic, ahistorical, and limiting. Four, I show how the very structure of soaps, especially its ‘open’ ness, periodicity and everydayness can play a significant role in spreading banal nationalism. Five, I show how the operations of banal Hindutva disrupt the relationship between folk and Sanskritic practices, contributing to the homogenizing of Hinduism. And finally, I have shown how by going beyond the texts themselves, we find a bridge between the studies of soaps that look at the micropolitics of gender and those that look at macropolitics of national identity.
Subject (authority = RUETD)
Topic
Communication, Information and Library Studies
RelatedItem (type = host)
TitleInfo
Title
Rutgers University Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Identifier (type = RULIB)
ETD
Identifier
ETD_4365
PhysicalDescription
Form (authority = gmd)
electronic resource
InternetMediaType
application/pdf
InternetMediaType
text/xml
Extent
ix, 431 p. : ill.
Note (type = degree)
Ph.D.
Note (type = bibliography)
Includes bibliographical references
Note (type = statement of responsibility)
by Santanu Chakrabarti
Subject (authority = ETD-LCSH)
Topic
Hindutva--India
Subject (authority = ETD-LCSH)
Topic
Television soap operas--India
Identifier (type = hdl)
http://hdl.rutgers.edu/1782.1/rucore10001600001.ETD.000066648
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TitleInfo
Title
Graduate School - New Brunswick Electronic Theses and Dissertations
Identifier (type = local)
rucore19991600001
Location
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NjNbRU
Identifier (type = doi)
doi:10.7282/T3JH3JX3
Genre (authority = ExL-Esploro)
ETD doctoral
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Rights

RightsDeclaration (ID = rulibRdec0006)
The author owns the copyright to this work.
RightsHolder (type = personal)
Name
FamilyName
Chakrabarti
GivenName
Santanu
Role
Copyright Holder
RightsEvent
Type
Permission or license
DateTime (encoding = w3cdtf); (qualifier = exact); (point = start)
2012-10-03 17:12:51
AssociatedEntity
Name
Santanu Chakrabarti
Role
Copyright holder
Affiliation
Rutgers University. Graduate School - New Brunswick
AssociatedObject
Type
License
Name
Author Agreement License
Detail
I hereby grant to the Rutgers University Libraries and to my school the non-exclusive right to archive, reproduce and distribute my thesis or dissertation, in whole or in part, and/or my abstract, in whole or in part, in and from an electronic format, subject to the release date subsequently stipulated in this submittal form and approved by my school. I represent and stipulate that the thesis or dissertation and its abstract are my original work, that they do not infringe or violate any rights of others, and that I make these grants as the sole owner of the rights to my thesis or dissertation and its abstract. I represent that I have obtained written permissions, when necessary, from the owner(s) of each third party copyrighted matter to be included in my thesis or dissertation and will supply copies of such upon request by my school. I acknowledge that RU ETD and my school will not distribute my thesis or dissertation or its abstract if, in their reasonable judgment, they believe all such rights have not been secured. I acknowledge that I retain ownership rights to the copyright of my work. I also retain the right to use all or part of this thesis or dissertation in future works, such as articles or books.
Copyright
Status
Copyright protected
Availability
Status
Open
Reason
Permission or license
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