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Encountering Kālī: In the Margins, at the Center, in the West

Online ISBN:
9780520928176
Print ISBN:
9780520232396
Publisher:
University of California Press
Book

Encountering Kālī: In the Margins, at the Center, in the West

Rachel Fell McDermott (ed.),
Rachel Fell McDermott
(ed.)
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Jeffrey Kripal (ed.)
Jeffrey Kripal
(ed.)
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Published:
5 May 2003
Online ISBN:
9780520928176
Print ISBN:
9780520232396
Publisher:
University of California Press

Abstract

This book explores one of the most remarkable divinities the world has seen—the Hindu goddess Kālī. She is simultaneously understood as a blood-thirsty warrior, a goddess of ritual possession, a Tantric sexual partner, and an all-loving, compassionate Mother. Popular and scholarly interest in her has been on the rise in the West in recent years. Responding to this phenomenon, this book focuses on the complexities involved in interpreting Kālī in both her indigenous South Asian settings and her more recent Western incarnations. Using scriptural history, temple architecture, political violence, feminist and psychoanalytic criticism, autobiographical reflection, and the goddess's recent guises on the Internet, the chapters pose questions relevant to our understanding of Kālī, as they illuminate the problems and promises inherent in every act of cross-cultural interpretation.

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