Two Movements in Diasporic Anthropophagy

Abstract

This article discusses two arts-based interventions undertaken as part of a year-long inquiry on South Asian diasporic subjectivity. Using a methodology comprising both phenomenological and arts-based research processes, I detail the practical and qualitative aspects of the research leading to new understandings on the subject-matter. The framing of ‘diasporic anthropophagy’ alludes to the Brazilian Anthropophagic Movement, which has inspired my intention for the inquiry to symbolically cannibalise the narratives of the South Indian diaspora in an effort to surface an authentic diasporic subjectivity. The key references to Indian culture regard mudras in the Bharatanatyam dance form and the story of Sita’s burial into the Earth in the Ramayana. Phenomenological concepts of felt sense, content-in-process, and intersubjective response were key to my inquiry and are discussed as per the teachings of the Melbourne Institute of Experiential and Creative Art Therapy.