Critical essays are invited for a book on queer representations in literature from South Asian countries. The local and allied global developments in queer literature in the regions and subregions of South Asia encompass diverse themes which bring to the fore the intricacies of political activism and demand for rights and policies cutting across myriad socio-cultural forums and settings. Emphasizing on how local, 'situated' and specialized knowledge is produced and how they impact operations of power in multi layered South Asian societies, the proposed book would throw light on shared and shifting conversations on/of queer communities across diverse disciplines, fields of knowledge and areas.
The present volume that falls under the series, “South Asian Literature in Focus” would be a compilation of critical essays by scholars, academics, activists, writers, and artists aiming to foreground a whole spectrum of queer experiences in the South Asian regions and subregions notwithstanding the special emphasis on specificities and particularities that such a mode of enquiry demands. The book would be discussing the experiential realities of queer population, the spatial transgressions and transformations within, across and beyond the spaces and terrains in South Asia, both concrete and abstract, by discussing the potential of subversive forces at the heart of same-sex/trans and myriad affiliations of varied kinds. The documentation of queer urban spaces, and the allied disruptions of the 'paradigmatic' in the everyday narratives is one of the significant aspects of the book. Also, a few essays will spin a weave of interesting classroom experiences, the practice of teaching a queer text, its absorption and reception at both the individual and collective level. Partly, the book would try to capture the intricacies of such 'pedagogical wars', and what actually goes into the process of queering academia, what form of knowledge is excluded, rejected and discarded in the process and why. Moreover, a few essays would be discussing the new emergences in the digital turn by putting the queer experience in the intersections of fluid, virtual identities, cyber culture and robotics. Also, there would also be a segment on the ecocritical offshoot of queer studies in the wake of anthropocene and certain overlapping environmental concerns and green-earth theories. Again, a part of the book would also focus on the effect of trauma, discrimination and rejection of the queers in general and the disabled LGBTQA++ people in particular, and also the need to create a shared and sustainable space based on equality and equity. The intention here is to unlayer the complex dynamics behind care and sustenance of the queer disabled in the context of daily stigmatization. Queer and popular culture would be another vital segment of the book which aims to throw light on the current aspects of queerness as evidenced in popular cinema, performance art and music. Some of the sub-themes that the volume seeks to explore are:
- Queer Emergences in South Asia: Queer Writing, Queer Politics
- Intersectionalities and Queer Identity in South Asia
- Forging Queer Spaces: Marginality, Liminality, Transgression and the Production of Spaces
- Representation and Performativities of Queerness in South Asian Literature and Culture: the Visual and the Digital Turn
- Queer Literature and Activism in South Asia
- Queer Ecology and Environmentalism
- Bodies Without Borders: Mapping Queer Desire
- Academia and Queerness: The Pedagogical Wars
- Queer Disability Studies
₹325.00
Interested scholars may send in 200-250 words abstracts with a title and a brief bio note to queerintersectionality@gmail.com on or before 31st March, 2024.
