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Past as a Metaphor in the New Utopian Imaginations of Heritage in Kerala

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Book cover Urban Utopias

Part of the book series: Palgrave Studies in Urban Anthropology ((PSUA))

Abstract

Varghese interrogates the new imaginations and practices around heritage that have crystallized in the South Indian state of Kerala in the context of the international art exhibition, the Kochi-Muziris Biennale. She shows how, by building a past narrative of happy cosmopolitanism and bestowing it with time depth, the host city of Kochi is cast anew as “Kochi-Muziris.” This new formulation contains within it the potentiality to achieve a utopian ideal. However, this occurs through a process of narrative exclusion and re-appropriation that plays with the temporal and territorial notions of Kochi’s past and through a selective privileging of places.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Centre for Historical Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, India

    Rachel A. Varghese

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  1. Rachel A. Varghese
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Archaeology, Conservation and History, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway

    Tereza Kuldova

  2. Department of Political Science, Maharajas College, Kerala, India

    Mathew A. Varghese

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Varghese, R.A. (2017). Past as a Metaphor in the New Utopian Imaginations of Heritage in Kerala. In: Kuldova, T., Varghese, M. (eds) Urban Utopias. Palgrave Studies in Urban Anthropology. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-47623-0_9

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-47623-0_9

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  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-47622-3

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-47623-0

  • eBook Packages: Social SciencesSocial Sciences (R0)

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