Description
Criminal Love? takes up the challenge of studying the wide gamut of lived reality of the Indian queer, against the backdrop of a set of theories. Written by a man who has been openly gay for the last 40 years, this book picks up issues, concepts, and theories within the realm of queer studies and dissects them against the day-to-day experiences of Indian queers. Digging deep into his own experiences and those of the people with whom he has come into contact, Rao highlights the sites of transgression within a seemingly monosexual society and analyzes all the aspects of the struggle of being queer in a repressive atmosphere.
Contents
Preface
Acknowledgements
Introduction by Thomas Waugh
I: Sex, Sexuality, Gender, and Culture
II: Identities
III: Normativities
IV: Homosociality
V: Homophobia
VI: Lesbianism
VII: Perversion
VIII: Historiography
IX: The Politics of Section 377, IPC
Bibliography
Index
ISBN: 9789386446497
R. Raj Rao is a writer, poet, and teacher of literature and one of India’s leading gay-rights activists. His 2003 novel, The Boyfriend, is one of the first gay novels to come from India. Rao was one of the first recipients of the newly established QuebecIndia awards. R. Raj Rao is the author of almost a dozen poetry, fiction, plays, biography, and criticism books.
His collection of poems, BomGay, was made into an uncensored short film by the late Riyad Wadia in 1996. Perhaps no other Indian writer’s personal, literary and academic life is steeped in queer culture as much as R. Raj Rao’s.
He is a former Professor and Head of the Department of English at the Savitribai Phule Pune University.
