ABSTRACT

This book analyses regional expressions of the queer experience in texts available in the Indian vernacular languages. It studies queer autobiographies and literary and cinematic texts written in the vernacular languages on gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender issues. The authors outline the specific terms that are popular in the bhashas (languages) to refer to the queer people and discuss any neo coinages/modes of communication invented by the queer people themselves. The volume also addresses the lack of queer representation in certain language communities and the lack of queer interaction in non-metropolitan cities in India.

An important contribution to the field of queer studies in India, this timely book will be an essential read for scholars and researchers of gender studies, queer studies, cultural studies, discrimination and exclusion studies, language studies, political studies, sociology, postcolonial studies and South Asian studies.

part I|56 pages

Vernacular Vocabularies and Expressions of the Regional Queer

chapter 2|16 pages

Queer in Karnataka

Exploring Male Same-Sex Sexualities in the Non-Metropolitan

chapter 3|21 pages

A Hidden Language That Reveals a Distinct Culture

Revisiting the Lingua Franca of the Hijra Community

part II|56 pages

LGBTQ+ and the Regional Literature

chapter 4|18 pages

Precarious Lives, Fraught Selves

Tirunangai Autobiographies in Tamil

chapter 5|10 pages

‘They’ Are Queer

Transgressing Gender Normativity in Vernacular Assamese Literature

chapter 6|26 pages

Urdu and the Queer Consciousness

part III|43 pages

Performing the Vernacular Queer Offline, Online and On Screen

chapter 7|15 pages

Mawngkuahur in the Times of E-Love

Sexualities, Regimentation, Control, Display and the Zo Queer

chapter 8|14 pages

The Many Bodies of the Vernacular

Negotiating Queer Identity in the Public and Virtual Domains of Assam

chapter 9|12 pages

Queer Assam on Celluloid

Locating Queer Characters in Bulbul Can Sing and Fireflies–Jonaki Porua

part IV|36 pages

Queer Invisibility and the Linguistic Community

chapter 10|17 pages

The Many ‘Queer’ Silences

Competing Masculinities in Kashmir

chapter 11|17 pages

In Search of the Queer in (Catholic) Konkani

Silence, Slurs and the Spectacular

part V|42 pages

Making the Queer Visible in the Vernacular Culture

chapter 13|18 pages

Voices of Survival

LGBTQ+ Representations in Literary/Cinematic/Creative Texts in Bangla