Beyond the Heteronorm

Interrogating Critical Alterities in Global Art and Literature

Subhadeep Paul, Goutam Majhi

• Publisher: Lexington Books
• Year: 2024
• Edition: 1
• eBook ISBN:
  9798216338529
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Gender Studies
• Index: Social Sciences

Beyond the Heteronorm: Interrogating Critical Alterities in Global Art and Literature explores exclusionary practices inspired by the construct of gender and how these conventions often misconstrue and convolute sex, gender, and sexual orientation. The contributors to this collection examine literary and visual representations of critical alterities from around the globe to produce empathic and inclusive analyses of experiences shared between diverse subordinated and minoritized socio-cultural entities and collectives. Organized into three parts, the chapters critique the concepts of personhood, performativity, and the post-binary. This edited collection deconstructs gender essentialism and embraces gender inclusivity in both theory and practice.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Contents
• List of Figures and Tables
• Foreword
• Acknowledgements
• Introduction
• Part I: Critiquing Personhood
• Chapter 1: The Formless Shape: An Analysis of Ana Mendieta’s Silueta Body Artwork from an “Eerie” Perspective
• Chapter 2: Sanitizing the Erotic: Women’s Body in the Ritual Performance of Jagoi Raas
• Chapter 3: Objectification of the Female Breast: A Rereading of Mahasweta Devi’s Breast Giver and Yogesh Pagare’s Mulakaram
• Chapter 4: Critiquing the Sociocultural Gender Dynamics of Select Bengali Ghost Fiction
• Chapter 5: Zami: Embracing the Body
• Part II: Critiquing Performativity
• Chapter 6: “Straight But Not Narrow”: An Ally Confronts Homophobia through Litost
• Chapter 7: Cultural Currencies and Pathways to Queer Acceptance in Rwanda
• Chapter 8: Being Single: The Plight of Spinsters and Divorcees in Urban Kolkata
• Chapter 9: Bodies and Identity: The Dynamics of Female Identity in Third-generation Nigerian Writing
• Chapter 10: Motherhood—An Inseparable Fragment of Feminist Discourse in Mariama Ba’s So Long a Letter
• Part III: Critiquing the Post-Binary
• Chapter 11: Problematizing the Gaze: Cindy Sherman’s Depiction of Femininity in The Complete Untitled Film Stills
• Chapter 12: Virulent Mistresses: Binomial-Opposition in Select Renaissance Paintings by Artemisia Gentileschi and Judith Leyster
• Chapter 13: Unveiling the Veil: A Study of the Political Role of Muslim Women in Medieval India
• Chapter 14: The Shade: A Trans* Experience of Creative Resistance
• Chapter 15: Teary-eyed Tough Guys: Why Manshaming and Feminist Sons Do Not Go Together?
• Index
• About the Contributors