Queering Feminist Literary Discourse in India: Beyond Heteronormative Womanhood.

Abstract

India's feminist literature has played a leading role in challenging patriarchy, caste oppression, and gender-based violence in the country. Nonetheless, it must be noted that both the literary corpus and scholarly analysis have primarily been framed within the framework of cisnormativity and heteronormativity. The current paper proposes that recent tendencies in the field of queer and transgender literature call for a paradigmatic shift in the feminist literary discourse in India. Drawing on Judith Butler's theory of gender performativity, Kimberlé Crenshaw's intersectionality framework, queer of colour critique, and transfeminism, the present study analyses A. Revathi's autobiographical work "The Truth About Me," Living Smile Vidya's memoir "I Am Vidya," works by Meena Kandasamy, and the reception of Akwaeke Emezi's writings in India. A qualitative analysis of the selected texts reveals their subversive nature and highlights the flaws of feminist discourse, which takes for granted the notion of cisgender and heteronormative womanhood. These works demonstrate the need for the consideration of the intersections between such dimensions as caste, class, language(s), sexuality, and gender variance within a new feminist framework. The queering of feminist literary discourse in India presupposes shifting from inclusiveness to transformative knowledge production.

Keywords