Output details

'Man of the Heart' (a practice-as-research performance project), and 'Man of the Heart: Iterative Possibilities between Anthropology and Performance', a chapter in Folklore in Context: Essays in Honor of Shamsuzzaman Khan

This performance-cum-research project is on the life and philosophy of Lalon Shah Phokir, nineteenth-century Sufi-Baul saint-songmaker from Bengal, who preached a gospel of religious harmony, looking for divinity within the realm of the human body. The project uses two modes of exploration: (1) extensive field and archival research, and (2) the ‘research as performance’ mode. The resultant output is twofold: an ongoing performance and the more conventional print and audio-video publishing.

The first of the two modes of research has combined two more ‘conventional’ approaches: (a) researching a subject that has been documented historically through traditional archives—printed records from the nineteenth century as well as ongoing and more recent scholarship in Bengali and English, in addition to manuscripts—along with, (b) extensive fieldwork in Bangladesh and West Bengal (India), including audio/video documentation (musical recordings and interviews) of present-day practising phokirs (Bengali for fakir) and other singers of Lalon Shah’s songs. This being a largely oral tradition, the ongoing fieldwork has been of critical value to the research.

The performance has been developed through multiple remountings and incarnations. Defying definitions of the conventional ‘biopic’, Man of the Heart posits performance as a means of presenting research findings about a tradition of ‘performance’ (music and the embodied spiritual/hermeneutic practice of the Sufi-Bauls) by means of staged performance.

This methodological approach has facilitated the use of ‘performance’ as a research index, one that goes beyond text and complements more conventional ‘written’ and ‘recorded’ research. This has made possible a more holistic and integrative approach towards researching a postcolonial, living and largely oral tradition in modes that go beyond the archive.

Further information on this research can be found at: www.lalon.org