Of Silk Saris & Mini-Skirts

South Asian Girls Walk the Tightrope of Culture

Amita Dr Handa author

Format:Paperback

Publisher:Women's Press of Canada

Published:1st Jan '03

Should be back in stock very soon

Of Silk Saris & Mini-Skirts cover

Dr. Handa explores issues surrounding the way identity is imagined and constructed by South Asian girls, women and South Asian community workers in Toronto. The author also examines ways in which young South Asian women are constructed and represented through discourses of race, nation, culture and community.

Using feedback from her interviews, the author discusses South Asian women's struggle with the threat of the erosion of their authentic cultural practices. Handa's critical theoretical perspective illuminates how South Asian women struggle to live within the boundaries of cultural preservation at the same time that they embrace aspects of the communities in which they live. She explores whether they both desire and are excluded from Canadian cultural hegemony. She also examines the theoretical implications of exclusion and conversely, the problematic of cultural preservation.

Of Silk Saris and Mini-Skirts conveys a thoughtful and well-researched argument about the secrets and lies, pride and strength – in essence, the fragmentation and perseverance that characterize the lives of second generation South Asian women in the diaspora."" - Meera Sethi, Anoki Vibe

ISBN: 9780889614062

Dimensions: unknown

Weight: 315g

211 pages