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The 'Paradox' of Being Young in New Delhi : Urban Middle Class Youth Negotiations with Popular Indian Film

Williams Örberg, Elizabeth (2007)
Centre for East and South-East Asian Studies, Lund University
Abstract
This thesis attempts to understand the ways in which popular film is integrated into the everyday lives of urban middle class youth in India. Approaching the study of film through an audience reception approach, I engaged in participant observation and interviews during a fieldwork period in New Delhi in order to better understand how a young audience might negotiate the fantasy of filmic images into the reality of their own lives. The two movies, Salaam Namaste and Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna (KANK), provided the platform for discussing sensitive or taboo topics in the interviews as well as in the larger public sphere. In portraying alternative lifestyles such as a pre-marital sexual live-in relationship in Salaam Namaste, and an extra-marital... (More)
This thesis attempts to understand the ways in which popular film is integrated into the everyday lives of urban middle class youth in India. Approaching the study of film through an audience reception approach, I engaged in participant observation and interviews during a fieldwork period in New Delhi in order to better understand how a young audience might negotiate the fantasy of filmic images into the reality of their own lives. The two movies, Salaam Namaste and Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna (KANK), provided the platform for discussing sensitive or taboo topics in the interviews as well as in the larger public sphere. In portraying alternative lifestyles such as a pre-marital sexual live-in relationship in Salaam Namaste, and an extra-marital relationship in KANK, these movies presented a possibility for discussing as well as negotiating changing practices and attitudes concerning courtship and marriage in India. The concept of negotiation plays a key role in this interpretation and analysis of the challenges, or 'paradox', young people face while integrating a modern, global outlook with traditional, "Indian" morality. Imagination, I argue, thus provides the necessary tool for negotiating modern dilemmas incurred by processes of globalization. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
author
Williams Örberg, Elizabeth
supervisor
organization
year
type
H1 - Master's Degree (One Year)
subject
keywords
India, New Delhi, middle class, film, Social sciences, Samhällsvetenskaper
language
English
id
1325066
date added to LUP
2007-03-13 00:00:00
date last changed
2007-03-13 00:00:00
@misc{1325066,
  abstract     = {{This thesis attempts to understand the ways in which popular film is integrated into the everyday lives of urban middle class youth in India. Approaching the study of film through an audience reception approach, I engaged in participant observation and interviews during a fieldwork period in New Delhi in order to better understand how a young audience might negotiate the fantasy of filmic images into the reality of their own lives. The two movies, Salaam Namaste and Kabhi Alvida Naa Kehna (KANK), provided the platform for discussing sensitive or taboo topics in the interviews as well as in the larger public sphere. In portraying alternative lifestyles such as a pre-marital sexual live-in relationship in Salaam Namaste, and an extra-marital relationship in KANK, these movies presented a possibility for discussing as well as negotiating changing practices and attitudes concerning courtship and marriage in India. The concept of negotiation plays a key role in this interpretation and analysis of the challenges, or 'paradox', young people face while integrating a modern, global outlook with traditional, "Indian" morality. Imagination, I argue, thus provides the necessary tool for negotiating modern dilemmas incurred by processes of globalization.}},
  author       = {{Williams Örberg, Elizabeth}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  note         = {{Student Paper}},
  title        = {{The 'Paradox' of Being Young in New Delhi : Urban Middle Class Youth Negotiations with Popular Indian Film}},
  year         = {{2007}},
}