Encountering Kali: In the Margins, at the Center, in the West

Encountering Kali explores one of the most remarkable divinities the world has seen. The Hindu goddess Kali is simultaneously understood as a blood-thirsty warrior, a deity of ritual possession, a Tantric sexual partner, and an all-loving, compassionate mother. Popular and scholarly interest in her has been on the rise in the West in recent years. Responding to this phenomenon, McDormott and Kripal’s volume focuses on the complexities involved in interpreting Kali in both her indigenous south Asian settings and her more recent Western incarnations. Through the shifting lenses of scriptural history, temple architecture, political violence, feminist and psychoanalytic criticism, autobiographical reflection, and the goddess’s recent guises on the Internet, the contributors pose questions that illuminate our contributors pose questions that illuminate our understanding of Kali while addressing the problems and promises inherent in every act of cross-cultural interpretation.