Date: Fri, 09 Aug 1996 12:39:36 -0400 (EDT)
From: Satish K Kolluri <kolluri-AT-comm.umass.edu>
Subject: body and rasa theory


radhika

i posed the question about the relationship between cyborgs and rasa theory
in an exploratory way, i.e, can two seemingly unrelated bodies of 
theories intersect each other? on what kind of an epistemoogical turf?
	at a macrolevel, the invocation of rasa theory was to indicate 
the possibility of employing a different structuring principle or 
explanatory framework in, to use donna haraway's phrase, "si(gh)ting the 
body."   the point i am trying to make is that the theory of rasa is not 
to be judged as a signifier of cultural difference, but as a framework 
that explains in great detail, the unity of aesthetic experience and in 
doing so, does not subscribe to mind/body and male/female binarisms that 
are usually assumed by theorists of the west. donna haraway could well be 
talking about rasa theory when she says that " theory is bodily, and 
theory is literal, theory is anything but disembodied."
	at the risk of making a (meta)physical leap, while one can 
discern struggle (over meaning) in a cyborg subject in ordinary life,
rasa theory attempts to invoke an experience of unity in the rasika 
(the spectator), a peaceful one at that, far removed from the mundane 
aspects of life. at firse glance, it seems that the nature of 
interpellation is different in each case. as an "inappropriate/d other" 
(trinh minh ha), the cyborg subject, as haraway states, is in "critical, 
deconstructive relationality...not to fit in the taxon, to be dislocated 
>from the available maps specifying kinds of actors and kinds of 
narratives, not to be originally fixed by difference...to be neither 
modern nor postmodern, but to insist on the amodern."  
	interpellation functions differently in rasa theory (should we 
not insist on its amodernity? it constructs the aesthetic 
experience for the rasika. does this sound too far fetched? shall stop 
rambling for now.

cheers

satish


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