Leah Lowthorp: Art and the Changing Social Body: Sanskrit Theater and Regional Heritage in Kerala, India

Since the second half of the twentieth century, Kutiyattam Sanskrit theater of Kerala, India, has been embedded in several realms of official identity construction — Kerala state, the Indian nation, and, via UNESCO recognition, the world. Yet, among artists, the region persists as the primary locus of identity. This talk will examine how Kutiyattam theater has reflected the changing social body in Kerala — from the solidification of official identity via the construction of a regional heritage canon, to the state's legacies of matrilineality, caste, and Communism.