Mythical Beings and Becoming: Emerging Identities of Art Educators in India

Abstract

This essay layers the theoretical concepts of myth (Barthes, 1972) and becoming (Deleuze and Guattari, 1987) to examine how we might produtively read the identity of contemporary Indian art educators2 in order to understand the landscape of art education in India in a nuanced manner. Interpreting narratives of Indian art educators through the mythical concept of Laxmana-rekha, the concepts of myth and becoming are applied to make visible connections between Indian art educators’ choice of profession as influenced by social constructions of gender. The concept is also used to understand ways in which we receive and perceive the lessons of cultural mythologies in contemporary contexts of perceiving and constructing perceptions of art education.