Description
Book SynopsisHas there been a ‘conspiracy of silence’ regarding sexuality in India, be it within social movements or as a focus of scholarship? A Question of Silence? interrogates this assumption in order to thematise a crucial field. Prefaced by a detailed introductory overview, the essays use diverse perspectives to develop an understanding of the institutions, practices and forms of representation of sexual relations and their boundaries of legitimacy. From unravelling the Kamasutra (the text) to investigating KamaSutra (the condom) the volume includes essays on how sexuality has been framed by the law, within social movements, or has been the site for patrolled caste, ethnic or gender identities. Other essays analyse cinematic, televisual and literary representations of sexuality. Taken as a whole, this book makes room for more wide-ranging approaches for tackling the sexual economies of desire and violence among men and women in modern India.
Table of Contents
- 1. Introduction: A Question of Silence? - Mary E. John and Janaki Nair
- 2. Unravelling the Kamasutra - Kumkum Roy
- 3. Offences agaist Marriage - Samita Sen
- 4. 'Left to the Imagination': Indian nationalisms and female sexuality - Tejaswini Niranjana
- 5. Reproductive Bodies and Regulated Sexuality - Anandhi S.
- 6. Comrades-in-Arms - U. Vindhya
- 7. Sexuality and the Film Apparatus - Ravi Vasudevan
- 8. Citizenship and its Discontents - Susie Tharu
- 9. Inventing Saffron History - Uma Chakravarti
- 10. Uneven Modernities and Ambivalent Sexualities - Kalpana Ram
- 11. On Bodily Love and Hurt - V. Geetha
- 12. Enforcing Cultural Codes - Prem Chowdhry
- 13. Globalisation, Sexuality and the Visual Field - Mary E.John
