Making the Right Choice
Author | : Asha L. Abeyasekera |
Publisher | : Rutgers University Press |
Total Pages | : 108 |
Release | : 2021-03-12 |
ISBN-10 | : 9781978810327 |
ISBN-13 | : 1978810326 |
Rating | : 4/5 (27 Downloads) |
Download or read book Making the Right Choice written by Asha L. Abeyasekera and published by Rutgers University Press. This book was released on 2021-03-12 with total page 108 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 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.