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Loving Paradoxes: A Feminist Reclamation of the Goddess Kali
- Hypatia
- Indiana University Press
- Volume 15, Number 1, Winter 2000
- pp. 125-150
- Article
- Additional Information
The feminist significance of the Goddess Kali lies in an indigenous worshipful attitude of "Kali-bhakti" rather than in the mere image of the Goddess. The peculiar mother-child motif at the core of the poet Ramprasad Sen's Kali-bhakti represents, I argue, not only a dramatic reconstruction of femininity but of selfhood in general. The spiritual goal of a devotee here involves a deconstruction of "master identity" necessary also for ethico-political struggles for justice.