This essay collection examines the cultural and personal world of girls and women at a time when their lives, their person, their realities, and their status are about to change forever. Together, the chapters cleverly create an in-depth study of the subject, and look at several cultural forms to offer a different approach to the popularly-held views of the bride. The critical essays in this edited collection are thematically driven and include global perspectives of the portrayals of the bride in the films, stage productions and pop-culture narratives from Nigeria; Kenya; Uganda; Tanzania; Spain; Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome; Tajikistan; India; Egypt; and the South-Eastern Indian Ocean Islands. This multinational approach provides insight into the intricacies, customs, practices, and life-styles surrounding the bride in various Eastern and Western cultures.
Jo Parnell is conjoint research fellow to the Faculty of Education and Arts at University of Newcastle.
Foreword by Kevin Hall Introduction by Jo Parnell and Josephine May 1.Plautus, Catullus and Public Depictions of the Bride in Rome Jane Bellemore 2.In Grey and Pink: The Image of the Bride through the Spanish Post-War Novela Rosa Rosana Murias 3.Sex and the Bride: Citra Mudgal's Hindi Short Story Dulhin as a Mirror of Changing Family Relations in Contemporary India Alessandra Consolaro 4.Here Comes the (Bollywood) Bride: Gender, Power, Family, and Patriarchy in Millennial India Andrew Howe 5.Ideological and Cultural Manifestations in Bridal Narrative and the Image of the Bride in Modern Egyptian Visual Culture Azza Harras 6.The Image of a Bride in Tajik Cinema Sharofat Arabova 7.The "Economics" of Bride Price in Nigerian Women's Literature Shalini Nadaswaran 8.The Bride's Agency: East Africa Novelistic and Dramatic Imaginaries Wafula Yenjela 9.Advertising the Bride in South-Eastern Indian Ocean Islands Zoly Rakotoniera and Gladys Abdoul
Dr. Jo Parnell's collection of scholarly essays on Bride is a fascinating read. The topic is riveting and the collection is beautifully put together. The poignant figure of the bride parades before us in a series of different global cultures, past and present, each of them blending tradition and (occasionally) innovation, fantasy and reality, and empowerment and subjugation. There are common threads and striking differences. Amazing that no-one has thought of doing this before, but we can rejoice that someone has now carried it off!--Hugh Craig, Emeritus Professor, FAHA, University of Newcastle This edited collection is the perfect companion to Dr. Parnell's 2018 publication on representations of the mother-in-law, restoring the voices of women often overlooked by academic scholarship. The sweeping scope of the essays takes us across multiple disciplines, chronologies, and continents to examine the bride (both child and adult) in literature, stage, film, and even advertising videos. From Ancient Roman to Franco's Spain to 2019 Mauritius and Madagascar, the bride emerges as a figure on the border of tradition and modernity, shaped by and at odds with globalization and local patriarchal cultures, negotiating her oppression and personal freedom.--Julie Taddeo, University of Maryland This is absolutely the best kind of essay collection: original, insightful, scholarly and beautifully written. An important work on a largely underexplored topic, this globally focused view of the bride in literature and on the stage and screen is essential and enthralling reading. Ambitious in its scope, which ranges across time and place, this carefully curated volume can be read straight through or dipped into for its deep insights into this ubiquitous but surprisingly overlooked figure. Essential reading!--Donna Lee Brien, Central Queensland University
