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This book comprises thirteen essays on the concept of theatre and its relationship with different performance and gender practices. The essays attempt to establish a sustained dialogue on major aspects of performance and gender identities and explore the issues of body politics, identity and spatial politics, gaze, public/private space dichotomy, alternative masculinity(ies) and femininity(ies) and resistance. The study also discovers the artists´ mindscapes, voices, self-representation through their life narratives and analyses the conflicts within the society and theatre practices of the time. Along with the essays in the book, there are two interviews which not only reflect the contemporary shape of feminism in the country but also explain the fundamentals of drama as an art form and its origins. Gender practices get staged in different ways with improvisations to be decoded, re-interpreted and challenged. The book studies how societal gender practices become a set pattern of life and how theatrical performances help to renegotiate with the given gendered identities, spatial trends, further, to discover the real identity and accept the multiplicity of the same.

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Pandey, Rachana
Dr Rachana Pandey is Assistant Professor in Department of English, Vasanta College for Women (Admitted to the Privileges of Banaras Hindu University) Rajghat Varanasi India. She is a recipient of the prestigious Charles Wallace India Trust Grant in UK. She earned her PhD degree from Department of English, Faculty of Arts, Banaras Hindu University.

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