Search results for ""author ruth vanita""
Penguin Books India Pvt Ltd On the Edge: 100 Years of Hindi Fiction on Same-Sex Desire
On the Edge is a first-of-its-kind collection of short stories and extracts from novels centred on theme of same-sex desire, translated from the original Hindi. The sixteen beautiful and provocative stories featured here (published between 1927 and 2022) include classic works by Asha Sahay, Premchand, Ugra, Rajkamal Chaudhuri, Geetanjali Shree, Sara Rai and Rajendra Yadav, among others.
£16.95
Penguin Random House India My Family
MY FAMILY is a collection of pen portraits on a few of the many animals with whom Mahadevi Varma chose to spend her life. Set in a time when human and non-human worlds were still permeable, the book describes the singular personalities of Mahadevi's adoptive animals and the unique relationships she enjoyed with each of them. There is Gillu the frisky squirrel, Neelkanth the gorgeous caring peacock, Sona the affectionate doe with liquid eyes, Neelu the imperious yet loyal mountain dog, and others whom Mahadevi magically brings to life on the page. Brilliantly translated by Ruth Vanita and peppered with Mahadevi's sparkling wit, these sketches depict a memorable life lived with a special chosen family. In her erudite introduction, Vanita analyses various dimensions of Mahadevi's life and work, illuminates her historical and literary legacy, and reviews the myriad debates on humans' coexistence with animals.
£13.95
Duke University Press Chocolate and Other Writings on Male Homoeroticism
This volume makes available for the first time in English the work of a significant Indian nationalist author, Pandey Bechan Sharma, better known in India as “Ugra,” meaning “extreme.” His book Chocolate, a 1927 collection of eight stories, was the first work of Hindi fiction to focus on male same-sex relations, and its publication sparked India’s first public debates about homosexuality. Many prominent figures, including Gandhi, weighed in on the debates, which lasted into the 1950s. This edition, translated and with an introduction by Ruth Vanita, includes the full text of Chocolate along with an excerpt from Ugra’s novel Letters of Some Beautiful Ones (also published in 1927). In her introduction, Vanita situates Ugra and his writings in relation to Indian nationalist struggles and Hindi literary movements and feuds, and she analyzes the controversies that surrounded Chocolate. Those outraged by its titillating portrayal of homosexuality labeled the collection obscene. On the other side, although no one explicitly defended homosexuality in public, some justified Ugra’s work by arguing that it was the artist’s job to educate through provocation.The stories depict male homoeroticism in quotidian situations: a man brings a lover to his disapproving friend’s house; a good-looking young man becomes the object of desire at his school. The love never ends well, but the depictions are not always unsympathetic. Although Ugra claimed that the stories were aimed at suppressing homosexuality by exposing it, Vanita highlights the ambivalence of his characterizations. Cosmopolitan, educated, and hedonistic, the Hindu and Muslim men he portrayed quote Hindi and Urdu poetry to express their love, and they justify same-sex desire by drawing on literature, philosophy, and world history. Vanita’s introduction includes anecdotal evidence that Chocolate was enthusiastically received by India’s homosexual communities.
£21.99
