| This thesis is a visual and theoretical investigation of the image of Indian femininity produced by the visual language of the bazaar for the women of the Indian diaspora. The site of my investigation is the Indian bazaar in the city of Montreal. Through semiological models, as well as my own experience in the space of the bazaar, a taxonomy was developed from the visual language of the bazaar to identify the ways in which gender identities are constructed through representation and semiotic structures. Creative work based on the visual fieldwork undertaken in the bazaar along Jean-Talon Street has been gathered into a series of books entitled, Woven Language . This thesis argues that concepts of Indian femininity are not inherent knowledges of women in the Indian diaspora, but rather learned from exposure to representation and the organization of social spaces, such as the Indian bazaar. |
