A Look at My Data Collection
March 6, 2025
Welcome back to my blog! This week, I will be giving you a sneak peek into the data I’ve collected so far!
My methodology has changed a bit since you last saw it, so let me explain what’s different. I am still sticking to coding the videos and finding themes, but to make it more standardized, I created a worksheet with questions under each sub-category that I need to answer. For example, under the “space” category, I have the question “How is the dancer using the space around her? Where on the screen is she during the song?”. Like this, I have around four questions to answer for time, color, and texture. Then I made a table with one column being “action/object,” the next being “symbolism,” and the last one being “theme.” Once I finish analyzing all the songs, I will make a table of common themes and the number of occurrences.
So far, I have analyzed 7/9 songs; the last two are pending because of some technicalities. During the two remaining songs, there are sections where the music is playing, but a different scene is being shown. Do I count that scene if it is still related to the song? Or do I leave it out because the dancer isn’t shown? Also, in those songs, there may not even be choreography, so do I still count that? One of the songs is “Ek Baar Dekh Lijiye” where we see how two love interests interact, but there is no dancing involved. This song also has nothing to do with courtesans since one character is pretending to not be one (the other character does not know that). The other song is “Azadi” and involves all the courtesans marching in protest against the British. If you have any recommendations, feel free to leave a comment!
From the seven songs I have analyzed, my hypothesis has proven to be correct and has answered my research question. While I have found instances that conform to the standard portrayal of courtesans, there are also many occurrences of “complexity in emotion” and “autonomy in decision making,” among other themes I have found. Because of the tables I am making, I can pinpoint specific examples as to how historical narratives of courtesans are being undermined.
Oral defense question of the week:
If you had three more months to work on this research question/project goal, what additional research strategies would you put into practice?
I would increase my sample size and select songs from popular movies about courtesans as well. This way, by looking at a range of videos, I could see how the portrayal has changed over time. For example, there were many famous movies released in the late 1900s, like Umrao Jaan (1981) or Pakeezah (1972), and I think it would be interesting to analyze how the characterization of courtesans has changed over the years.
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Hey Sri, this all sounds super cool! I think to answer your question about whether to include a seemingly unrelated scene in your analysis, you could distinguish whether the scene has anything to do with the ‘story’ or subject matter of the song itself. I’m just wondering what exactly constitutes a scene that has little to do with the song, but is playing during it.
Hm, maybe if a song is played as a musical sequence, simply analyzing the body language itself may constitute a “choreography”?
Also on the question of scenes that don’t show the courtesan, maybe do so on a case by case basis on which
is the scene relevant at all to the portrayal of courtesans?
since it could be sort of like “reactions to courtesans” but not show the courtesans themselves etc
I think as for whether you should count a song, you should establish a clear definition for yourself what analyzing the songs does for the research question overall? What data are you trying to extract from it, and what elements are important. I think once you decide that, if the song has those important elements, you should include it.