Thinking Queerness and Forming Intimacies: Understanding Identity, Relationships, and Queerness in South Asian Diasporic Contemporary Literature, 1981–2022

Citation

Nandi, Ankita (2024) Thinking Queerness and Forming Intimacies: Understanding Identity, Relationships, and Queerness in South Asian Diasporic Contemporary Literature, 1981–2022. Senior thesis (Major), California Institute of Technology. doi:10.7907/6v3z-tw65. https://resolver.caltech.edu/CaltechTHESIS:03192024-215940431

Abstract

Reading intimacy in South Asian diasporic texts requires a nuanced framework to understand the impersonality of sex, and blurrings within relationships and intimacies. Intimacy, both emotional and physical, depends on vulnerability to connect with others. I use a queer diasporic framework to analyze a selection of scenes from different contemporary South Asian diasporic texts, from 1981–2022. Specifically, I analyze their portrayals of intimacy and relationships to disrupt binaries invoked on how we might view intimacy. Such a framework also affords insights into how the diaspora and queerness both influence identity and disrupt heterosexual readings of texts to allow for deeper emotional intimacies. The framework is grounded in queer theory, history of the LGBTQ+ community and the queer body, and history of the diaspora to allow for nuanced readings of the texts. Through exploring the queer diaspora in these contemporary texts, I challenge binaries of both the queer and diasporic frameworks in ways that encompass the complexities of the relationships we find ourselves in.

Thesis Files