Gender and Genre in the Folklore of Middle India (Cornell University Press, 1996).  

Analyzes six representative Indian folklore genres (from an unmarried girls’ song genre to a regional epic) from a single regional repertoire in Chhattisgarh. Flueckiger found that these genres are indigenously identified by social categories of performers and audiences and context (unmarried girls, the region of Chhattisgarh, etc.) rather than by form (song, epic, story). To analyze specific genres in an inter-performative repertoire of other genres identified as “Chhattisgarhi” provides a contextual commentary on each genre, respectively, and their relationships. For example, the Chhattisgarhi genre of Pandvani is not associated with the Mahabharata, whose story it is based on, or the other pan-Indian epic of the Ramayana, but with another publicly performed Chhattisgarhi epic, Candaini. It is said that “Pandvani is sung from our hearts, whereas the Ramayan is shastra.”  The regional repertoire under examination presents a strikingly female-centered world. Female characters (and performers) are active, articulate, and frequently challenge or defy dominant expectations of gender; male characters also confound traditional gender roles. Flueckiger includes the translations of two long performance texts of narratives sung by female and male storytellers, respectively.