Encountering Kali

by McDermott, Rachel Fell

• ISBN13: 9780520232402
• ISBN10: 0520232402
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2003-04-01
• Publisher: Univ of California Pr

Summary

Encountering Kalexplores one of the most remarkable divinities the world has seen--the Hindu goddess Kal . She is simultaneously understood as a blood-thirsty warrior, a goddess of ritual possession, a Tantric sexual partner, and an all-loving, compassionate Mother. Popular and scholarly interest in her has been on the rise in the West in recent years. Responding to this phenomenon, this volume focuses on the complexities involved in interpreting Kal in both her indigenous South Asian settings and her more recent Western incarnations. Using scriptural history, temple architecture, political violence, feminist and psychoanalytic criticism, autobiographical reflection, and the goddess's recent guises on the Internet, the contributors pose questions relevant to our understanding of Kal , as they illuminate the problems and promises inherent in every act of cross-cultural interpretation.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations

Acknowledgments

About the Cover Art and Chapter Silhouettes

Notes on Transliteration Introducing Kali Studies

Kali In The Texts And Contexts Of South Asia

Kali

Kali the Terrific and Her Tests: The Sakta Devotionalism of theMahabhagavata Purana

The Domestication of a Goddess:Carana-tirthaKalighat, theMahapithaof Kali

Dominating Kali: Hindu Family Values and Tantric Power

Kali in a Context of Terror: The Tasks of a Goddess in Sri Lanka's Civil War

Kali Mayi: Myth and Reality in a Banaras Ghetto

Kali In Western Settings, Western Discourses

Wrestling with Kali: South Asian and British Constructions of the Dark Goddess

"India's Darkest Heart": Kali in the Colonial Imagination

Why the Tantrika Is a Hero: Kali in the Psychoanalytic Tradition

Doing the Mother's Caribbean Work: OnShaktiand Society in Contemporary Trinidad

Margins at the Center: Tracing Kali through Time, Space, and Culture

Kali's New Frontiers: A Hindu Goddess on the Internet

Appendix: Documentary Film and Video Resources for Teaching on Kali and Fierce Goddesses Sarah Caldwell

Contributors

Select Bibliography

Index

Table of Contents provided by Publisher. All Rights Reserved.