Call for Papers

Special Issue of "South Asian Popular Culture"

Bollywood Audiences (Fall/October 2005)

Special Issue Co-editors: Jigna Desai (University of
Minnesota), Rajinder Dudrah (University of
Manchester), and Amit Rai (Florida State University). 

“The sense of belonging that Bollywood films foster -
the sheer sense of security and shared joy, … the
commonality of experience despite the geographical
separation of so many thousands of miles - is second
to none. It works more because Bollywood is one of the
things that bind us together as Indians, never mind
where we live.”

Soumya Bhattacharya (Hindustan Times 1/25/03) 

Bollywood is often conceived as providing the idiom of
not only Indian, but also South Asian, and diasporic
identity in the 21st century. While Indian cinemas
have been well-known internationally for over fifty
years, it is more recently that Bollywood has become a
global cinema, often positioning itself against the
hegemony of Hollywood. As a national and global
cinema, Bollywood is ubiquitous from the Gulf States,
North America and East Africa, to Southeast Asia and
Europe. This reterritorialization of Bollywood raises
questions regarding its consumption and reception.
This special issue of "South Asian Popular Culture" is
dedicated to interrogating Bollywood’s significance
and meaning to its different audiences world-wide. 

Papers for a special issue of "South Asian Popular
Culture" are invited on the broad topic of Bollywood
and its audiences. Papers are invited on the
significant roles that Bollywood and its attendant
cultural products and practices (e.g., magazines,
television shows, variety shows, web sites, music, and
dance clubs) play economically and culturally for many
audiences in South Asia and abroad. We welcome
research that examines this cultural production and
consumption from vibrant and new perspectives that
challenge the assumptions of static, homogenous, and
passive audiences. Papers that engage the location of
Bollywood within specific geopolitical spaces and
audiences are especially welcome. Papers may also
focus on interrogating Bollywood’s role in local,
national, and transnational cultural and political
economies, discussing its economic and cultural
capital. 

Papers that discuss Bollywood’s role in forming
audiences, (ethnic, religious, class, gender, sexual,
or racial) identity formations, national or diasporic
discourses, and/or globalization are particularly
desirable. We seek contributions that interrogate the
diverse issues associated with audience consumption
and reception of Bollywood films such as
spectatorship, consumption, production of social
spaces, and cross-cultural signification. We welcome a
broad range of methodological and disciplinary
approaches including but not limited to ethnography,
focus groups, interviews, textual and discourse
analysis, and economic analysis.  

Deadline for submission of articles: 1 July 2004 

Please send enquiries and essays to Rajinder Dudrah at
rajinder.dudrah_at_man.ac.uk or to

Dr Rajinder Dudrah, Department of Drama, University of
Manchester, Oxford Road, Manchester, M13 9PL, UK.

Journal website: http://www.tandf.co.uk/journals/titles/14746689.html

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Received on Sat Dec 20 2003 - 19:14:31 EST