2026, Vol. 7, Issue 1, Part A
Threads as texts: Connecting Stuart Hall’s encoding/decoding model to phulkari
Author(s): Shweta Choudhary
Abstract:
The embroidery of Phulkari from Punjab has historically been regarded as a traditional craft, heritage textile, or a form of women's domestic labor. But these perspectives usually overlook its communicative aspect with the embroidery being the means for women to express memory, identity, and feelings. The present paper reframes the Phulkari as a cultural text and employs Stuart Hall's Encoding/Decoding model to go over the production, transmission, and interpretation of meanings through the medium of embroidered textiles. Quoting interdisciplinary literature from material culture studies, feminist theory, and communication studies, the paper claims that Phulkari functions as a non-verbal language where the women artists are the cultural producers who inscribe on their chosen, motifs, colors, and stitches both the individual and the common narratives. Phulkari is not merely a material heritage but an emotional and affective archive of Punjabi rural
women. The different parties such as the girls, the communities, the markets, the museums, and the fashion industry, each have their own way to read these meanings, thus leading to prevailing, negotiated, and resistant readings. The paper extends Hall's model from mass media to material culture, thus, presenting a novel theoretical contribution and positioning Phulkari as a living repository of women's memory and power. The study shows that the Phulkari is not only a decorative textile but also an slowly evolving practice of communication that is under-the-zero running majorly through gender, generation, and the changes in social-economic status, among others.DOI: 10.22271/27084450.2026.v7.i1a.144
Pages: 18-27 | Views: 53 | Downloads: 23
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