Main content
Kathryn Hansen collection of Nautanki chapbooks
Notifications
Held at: University of Pennsylvania: Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts [Contact Us]3420 Walnut Street, Philadelphia, PA 19104-6206
This is a finding aid. It is a description of archival material held at the University of Pennsylvania: Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts. Unless otherwise noted, the materials described below are physically available in their reading room, and not digitally available through the web.
Overview and metadata sections
Kathryn Hansen is a professor emerita in the Department of Asian Studies at the University of Texas at Austin. She has a PhD in South Asian Studies, an MA in Asian Studies, and a bachelor's degree in English. She specializes in South Asian languages and literatures (Hindi, Urdu); literary, cultural, and historical studies of South Asia; folk and classical performance of music and dance; early Indian cinema; and gender studies. She has published extensively, writing articles, chapters, and books on topics such as the history of popular theatre in India, gender roles, and performance, as well as translating works into English.
Kathryn Hansen collected chapbooks in the bazaars of old Delhi, Hathras, Lucknow, Kanpur, and Jaipur from 1982 to 1985. Sāngīts represent the bulk of the chapbooks in this collection, though it does include the genres Ālhā, Gīt, Bhajan, Nātak, and Qissā, as well. A Sāngīt is the published libretto of a folk drama known as Nautankī or Svāng. In performance, Nautankī brings together singing, drumming, dancing, and storytelling. The stories are usually based on local legends and popular romantic tales and told in a poetic language that mixes Hindi and Urdu. Printed Sāngīts were preserved by actors as scripts and were purchased by the public for light reading. Popular Sāngīts were reprinted multiple times over the years; some texts in this collection can be traced back to early twentieth-century compositions.
The collection is divided into three series: chapbooks, studies and anthologies, and recordings, with the first series comprising the bulk of the collection.
I. The chapbook series consists of a variety of chapbooks including Ālhās (oral epics); Gīt, Bhajan, and other song genres; Nātak (theatrical plays); Qissās (tales); and Sāngīts (Nautankī play scripts). Nātak and Sāngīt are the two genres best represented in the series. This series is organized alphabetically by genre (subseries a-e). Within each genre they are organized alphabetically by title. Whenever possible, the chapbook title, author, publisher, date, and page count are provided. Some chapbooks include colorful cover illustrations, while others appear to use publisher stock images. None have illustrations throughout the text. All chapbooks are in either Hindi or Urdu and were donated to Kislak with transcribed labels.
II. The studies and anthologies series consists of eleven books written in Hindi concerning Indian theatre and folk drama. This series is organized alphabetically by title. Whenever possible, the book title, author, publisher, publication date, and page count have been included. These books are in Hindi and were donated with transcribed labels.
III. The recordings series is organized into two subseries: (a) 45 rpm vinyl records and (b) audio cassettes. Vinyl records are organized alphabetically by genre, then by title. Artist, record label, and date information is included, and when known, run time is listed as well. The cassettes are organized alphabetically by title. Information provided for the cassettes is more varied; some have only a title and label, while others have title, artist, label, date, and run time. The majority of the recordings were donated with transcribed labels. For those that did not include transcribed labels, the information was extrapolated from other sources.
- Publisher
- University of Pennsylvania: Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts
- Finding Aid Author
- Rayna Andrews
- Finding Aid Date
- 2017 May 19
- Access Restrictions
-
The bulk of this collection is open for research use. However, access to original audio materials (Series III; Box 4, Folder 40-Box 6, Item 17) is restricted. The Kislak Center will provide access to the information on these materials from duplicate master files. If the original does not already have a copy, it will be sent to an outside vendor for copying. Patrons are financially responsible for the cost. The turnaround time from request to delivery of digital items is about two weeks for up to five items and three to seven weeks for more than five items. Please contact Reprographic Services (reprogr@upenn.edu) for cost estimates and ordering. Once digital items are received, researchers will have access to the files on a dedicated computer in the Van Pelt-Dietrich Library Center. Researchers should be aware of specifics of copyright law and act accordingly.
- Use Restrictions
-
Copyright restrictions may exist. For most library holdings, the Trustees of the University of Pennsylvania do not hold copyright. It is the responsibility of the requester to seek permission from the holder of the copyright to reproduce material from the Kislak Center for Special Collections, Rare Books and Manuscripts.