Making the Right Choice: Narratives of Marriage in Sri Lanka Contributor(s): Abeyasekera, Asha L. (Author) |
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ISBN: 1978810318 ISBN-13: 9781978810310 Publisher: Rutgers University Press OUR PRICE: $142.50 Product Type: Hardcover - Other Formats Published: March 2021 |
Additional Information |
BISAC Categories: - Social Science | Sociology - Marriage & Family - Social Science | Gender Studies - Religion | Sexuality & Gender Studies |
Dewey: 306.810 |
LCCN: 2020025416 |
Physical Information: 228 pages |
Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
Publisher Description: 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. |