Whose Immortal Picture Stories?: Amar Chitra Katha and the Construction of Indian Identities

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Graduate Program: Asian Studies

Custom Dissertation Writing Service:Textual Analysis, Ethnographic Interviews, Analysis of Production Processes

Immortal Picture Stories, the foremost Indian comic book series, enjoys a ubiquitous presence among the urban middle-class in India and the South Asian diaspora. These comic books give a unique opportunity for the study of the definition and negotiation of a modern middle-class Indian identity, as the multiplicity of intended and received messages of the comics will be examined by studying both their consumption and creation in conjunction with a careful reading of the content. My project will challenge traditional approaches to public culture which classically focuses on either creation or consumption, one at the expense of the other, by viewing both as dynamic and contested processes which together act with text and image to repeatedly recreate and transform identities. In addition, my project will engage identity formation - particularly the formation of religious identities - on both the transnational and national levels and examine the tensions between them.