“Stigmas of the Tamil Stage is an interesting and well-written study, most thorough in the analysis of comedic performance and in the history of Tamilnadu’s Special Drama.” — Leslie Johnson, Anthropology of Work Review
“[Stigmas of the Tamil Stage] a veritable tour de force. . . . The book is a must read for all those interested in popular performance practices in South Asia and the complexities of modernity lived out locally. Drawing from rich fieldwork and sensitive ethnography, Seizer balances the anthropologist's romance with the rigour of a social historian as she reads a range of archival material to plot and document the processes of cultural change in modern Tamilnadu through the lens of the special artists.” — Lakshmi Subramanian, South Asia
“[A] landmark in the writing of the history of the Tamil stage. It provides for the first time an in-depth study of the Special Drama genre,This book is a must for all those interested in the development of the Tamil stage and in Tamil culture and the politics of gender in general.” — Hanne M. de Bruin, Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute
“[T]he great strength of Stigmas of the Tamil Stage is classically anthropological: namely its capacity to wrest dilemmas that are at once political and existential out of an extraordinarily fine-grained ethnographic immersion in the lives and work of a very particular class of performers.” — William Mazzarella, Journal of Anthropological Research
“Through Stigmas of the Tamil Stage, Seizer makes a substantial contribution to performance studies and South Asian studies. With respect to the former, the book offers methodological insights into ways of thinking about the wider world in which theatres operate, and the implications that performance and spectatorship have for everyday life. Moreover, many parts of the book are fine resources for teaching about Indian theater, since Seizer’s descriptions are vivid and would make accessible reading for undergraduates.” — Shanti Pillai, TDR: The Drama Review
"Like all excellent works of performance studies, Stigmas of the Tamil Stage moves performance beyond aesthetics and situates it at the center of lived social experience. The book makes an important contribution to culturally and historically grounded studies of performance, as well as to the field of linguistic anthropology." — Amanda Weidman, Anthropological Quarterly
"The first study of its kind in English, [Stigmas of the Tamil Stage] not only goes deep into a genre little known even in big Tamil Nadu cities but also looks at the stigma attached to the artists, especially women, who perform in the shows. [This] book will be useful to anyone interested in the general problems of popular culture, notes author and scholar Sumathi Ramaswami." — Arthur J. Pais, India Abroad
“Susan Seizer presents rich and intriguing material about a dramatic performance tradition at the same time that she provides smart, insightful, and sophisticated interpretations linking it to wider discussions. Stigmas of the Tamil Stage deserves to be read, discussed, and used to further debates in many fields of study.” — Paula Richman, editor of Many Ramayanas: The Diversity of a Narrative Tradition in South Asia
“Susan Seizer’s moving and unique perspective on the fate of popular cultural practices in an age and society dominated by the norms and prescriptions of bourgeois modernity makes her work important and insightful not just for scholars of South Asia but for all those who are interested in the general problematic of popular culture, performance traditions, and modernity globally.” — Sumathi Ramaswamy, author of The Lost Land of Lemuria: Fabulous Geographies, Catastrophic Histories