Introduction : the living story and the storying of life -- Homo Narrans and the irrepressibility of stories -- Metaphysical questions of fortune and social stratification -- Virtue, truth, and the motherline of morality -- Loving compassion, maternal devotion and the yearning for home -- Gendering spatial alterity : why the story went into the forest -- Ponds, the feminine divine, and a shift in moral register -- Talking tools, femina Narrans and the irrepressibility of women
Summary
Constrained by traditions restricting their movements and speech, the Maithil women of Nepal and India have long explored individual and collective life experiences by sharing stories with one another. Coralynn V. Davis examines how these storytellers weave together their own life experiences - the hardships and the pleasures - with age-old themes
Bibliography
Includes bibliographical references (pages 201-208) and index