Making the Right Choice : : Narratives of Marriage in Sri Lanka / / Asha L. Abeyasekera.
Making the Right Choice unravels the entangled relationship between marriage, morality, and the desire for modernity as it plays out in the context of middle-class status concerns and aspirations for upward social mobility within the Sinhala-Buddhist community in urban Sri Lanka. By focusing on indi...
Saved in:
Superior document: | Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter EBOOK PACKAGE COMPLETE 2021 English |
---|---|
VerfasserIn: | |
MitwirkendeR: | |
Place / Publishing House: | New Brunswick, NJ : : Rutgers University Press, , [2021] ©2021 |
Year of Publication: | 2021 |
Language: | English |
Series: | Politics of Marriage and Gender: Global Issues in Local Contexts
|
Online Access: | |
Physical Description: | 1 online resource (252 p.) |
Tags: |
Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
|
Other title: | Frontmatter -- Contents -- Series Foreword -- Introduction -- 1. Sinhala Marriage: Then and Now -- 2. Making the “Right” Choice -- 3. Structuring the “Right” Choice -- 4. The Virtuous Self: Failed Marriages -- 5. The Valued Self: Singleness -- 6. The Vindicated Self: Divorce -- Conclusion -- Acknowledgments -- Notes -- References -- Index |
---|---|
Summary: | Making the Right Choice unravels the entangled relationship between marriage, morality, and the desire for modernity as it plays out in the context of middle-class status concerns and aspirations for upward social mobility within the Sinhala-Buddhist community in urban Sri Lanka. By focusing on individual life-histories spanning three generations, the book illuminates how narratives about a gendered self and narratives about modernity are mutually constituted and intrinsically tied to notions of agency. The book uncovers how "becoming modern" in urban Sri Lanka, rather than causing inter-generational conflict, is a collective aspiration realized through the efforts of bringing up educated and independent women capable of making "right" choices. The consequence of this collective investment is a feminist conundrum: agency does not denote the right to choose, but the duty to make the "right" choice; hence agency is experienced not as a sense of "freedom," but rather as a burden of responsibility. |
Format: | Mode of access: Internet via World Wide Web. |
ISBN: | 9781978810341 9783110754001 9783110753776 9783110754186 9783110753967 9783110739138 |
DOI: | 10.36019/9781978810341 |
Access: | restricted access |
Hierarchical level: | Monograph |
Statement of Responsibility: | Asha L. Abeyasekera. |