CSAS seminar.
Thursday 22 October 4pm
Transnational feminisms: shame, suffering, and moral personhood in Sri Lanka
Asha Abeyasekera (University of Colombo)
Drawing from narratives of three women with different life experiences—singleness, divorce, and a suicide-like act—this paper intends to explore the gendered implications the cultural emotion of læja-baya has on how women narrate life-events and histories. Glossed as shame and fear of social disapproval, læja-baya is a complex social emotion that embodies sentiments related to loss of face, self-esteem, status, and family honor, and compels women to disavow and obfuscate agency through repertoires of suffering and self-sacrifice. These accounts offer insights into how the moral person is constructed in Sri Lanka and, particularly, what it means to be a good daughter and a good woman. The paper intends to reflect on the implications that radically different conceptions of the self and personhood have for construing mental health and wellbeing outside a Western psychological framework, and for shaping feminisms in different locales.
Join Zoom Meeting
https://ed-ac-uk.zoom.us/j/84535512943
Meeting ID: 845 3551 2943
Passcode: 1E56RhtV
Join by Skype for Business
https://ed-ac-uk.zoom.us/skype/84535512943
CSAS seminar.
Thursday 22 October 4pm
Transnational feminisms: shame, suffering, and moral personhood in Sri Lanka
Asha Abeyasekera (University of Colombo)
Drawing from narratives of three women with different life experiences—singleness, divorce, and a suicide-like act—this paper intends to explore the gendered implications the cultural emotion of læja-baya has on how women narrate life-events and histories. Glossed as shame and fear of social disapproval, læja-baya is a complex social emotion that embodies sentiments related to loss of face, self-esteem, status, and family honor, and compels women to disavow and obfuscate agency through repertoires of suffering and self-sacrifice. These accounts offer insights into how the moral person is constructed in Sri Lanka and, particularly, what it means to be a good daughter and a good woman. The paper intends to reflect on the implications that radically different conceptions of the self and personhood have for construing mental health and wellbeing outside a Western psychological framework, and for shaping feminisms in different locales.
Join Zoom Meeting
https://ed-ac-uk.zoom.us/j/84535512943
Meeting ID: 845 3551 2943
Passcode: 1E56RhtV
Join by Skype for Business
https://ed-ac-uk.zoom.us/skype/84535512943