Queer, Caste and Identity: Contemplating Sexuality and Subalternity in Hansda S. Shekhar’s My Father’s Garden


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DOI:

https://doi.org/10.53032/TCL.2021.6.2.17

Keywords:

Subaltern, Gender-queer, Santhal Tribe, Homosexuality, Caste

Abstract

Divided into three sections “Lover”, “Friend” and “Father”, Hansda Sowvendra Shekhar’s novel, My Father’s Garden (2018), traverses through caste system, politics and most specifically sexuality and its multiple orientations. Set in Jharkhand, all three sections [especially the first two] introduce us to different contours of masculinities, and their accompanying desires and alienations. Observation of sexuality in Shekhar’s works is nothing new but what is exclusive is his depiction of homosexuality or its “queer” trajectories in a marginalized, third world, tribal society. This paper seeks to examine the nuances of sexual identity, issues of queer representation, subaltern selves and complexities of caste recognition in rural queer India. Through the characters’ [like Samir, BadaBabu and the narrator himself] view, this paper also tries to explore, locate and understand the queer selves. Taking philosophical supports from the works of Spivak, Mary Mackintosh, Foucault and Judith Butler, this paper simultaneously brings out the issues like marginality, the social construction of sexuality, discourses of sexuality and gender performativity.

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References

Anon. Queers Read This: The Queer Nation Manifesto. June 1990. Web. 10 June 2017. http://www.qrd.org/qrd/misc/text/queers.read.this.

Bakshi, Kaustav, and Rohit K. Dasgupta, Queer Studies: Texts, Contexts, Praxis. Orient Blackswan, 2019.

Butler. Judith. Bodies That Matter: On the Discursive Limits of ‘Sex’. Routledge, 1993.

Edgar, Andrew and Peter Sedgwick. Key Concepts in Cultural Theory. Routledge, 2004.

Foucault, Michel. Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison (1975). Trans. Alan Sheridan.2nd edition. Vintage Books, 1995.

Joseph, Sherry. “Gay and Lesbian Movement in India”. Economic and Political Weekly. Aug

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McIntosh, M. ‘Queer Theory and the War of Sexes’. Feminisms. Eds. S. Kemp and J. Squires. Oxford UP, 1997.

Shekhar, Hansda, S. My Father’s Garden. Speaking Tiger, 2018.

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Published

2021-06-30

How to Cite

Santi Ranjan Sing. “Queer, Caste and Identity: Contemplating Sexuality and Subalternity in Hansda S. Shekhar’s My Father’s Garden”. The Creative Launcher, vol. 6, no. 2, June 2021, pp. 119-26, doi:10.53032/TCL.2021.6.2.17.

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