Worlding Postcolonial Sexualities: Publics, Counterpublics, Human Rights PDF
Preview Worlding Postcolonial Sexualities: Publics, Counterpublics, Human Rights
“KanikaBatra’sWorldingPostcolonialSexualities:Publics,Counterpublics,HumanRightsisa tour de force of LGBTQI history, this time refreshingly tracing related southern acti- vism,whichisshowntotakecreativeandsometimesarcanepathsthatleadtoincreased LGBTQI consciousness and visibility. The comparison across southern activist spaces breakswiththecurrentlydominantcolonizedunderstandingof‘internationalism’.” Joan French, Institute of Gender and Development, University of the West Indies at Mona, Jamaica “Worlding Postcolonial Sexualities is a shining new gem in comparative studies. In a refreshing shift beyond the established canons, narratives, and genres of postcolonial, feminist, and queer studies, Batra reveals how feminist and LGBTQ newsletters, magazines, and journals in Jamaica, India, and South Africa, published between the late1970sandlate 1990s, createdcounterpublicspacesforarticulatinganddefending sexual rights, while tracing the emergence of these print cultures and organisational networksfromtheglobalSouthintotransnationalspheresasvibrant,alternative,rela- tional,andintersectionalformsoffeministandqueerhistoryandcoalition.” William J Spurlin, Professor of English and Vice-Dean, Brunel University London, UK “KanikaBatra brilliantly usesqueer journalism inJamaica,India,and SouthAfricato analyze counter discourses and the growing visibility of LGBTQ+ resistance. It answers the urgent question of how alternative queer histories and practices have become agents of postcolonial change and, equally importantly, how they develop transnationalSouth-Southconnections.Thisdeeplyinsightfulbookisamust-readfor anyoneinterestedin‘worldmaking,’feminism,queerpolitics,andsocialchange.” Premilla Nadasen, Professor of History, Barnard College, Columbia University, New York, USA, author of Household Workers Unite “KanikaBatra'sWorldingPostcolonialSexualities,buildsonherbookonpostcolonialdrama published in 2011, taking her research into an under-studied area of English-language magazinespublished from the late 1970s tothe mid- 1990s. This book isremarkable in analyzingfeministandqueeractivisminconnectionwitheachother.Batraassertsastutely thattheseparationoffeministfromgayissuesinnotproductiveinIndia,Jamaica,South Africa,scenariosthatare differentfromactivismforsexualrightsforgaysandlesbiansin Europe and North America. Rather, in these Global South locations, activist groups attempttogainspaceandraiseawarenessagainstsexualviolencevialegislativestrugglesas wellasfeministactivismandpublications.Sucheffortsworktowardssocialchangeinthe arenaofsexualinequalities.Thisbook,incombiningstudiesofgenderandsexualitywith thoseofspaceandregionasincreasinglyimportantinourglobalperspectivesincomparative studies,bringsnewarchivalmaterialintotransnationalgenderandglobalizationstudies.” Ketu H. Katrak, Professor of Drama, University of California, Irvine, USA, author of Politics of the Female Body WORLDING POSTCOLONIAL SEXUALITIES Worlding Postcolonial Sexualities demonstrates how late twentieth-century postcolonial print cultures initiated a public discourse on sexual activism and contends that postcolonial feminist and queer archives offer alternative histories of sexual precarity, vulnerability, and resistance. Thebook’scomparativefocusonIndia,Jamaica,andSouthAfricaextendsthevalen- cesofpostcolonialfeministandqueerstudiestowardsahistoricalexaminationofSouth- Southinteractionsinthetheoryandpraxisofsexualrights.Analyzingthecircumstances ofproductionandthecontentsofEnglish-languageandintermittentlybilingualmaga- zinesandnewsletterspublishedbetweenthelate1970sandthelate1990s,thesesources offerawaytoexaminetheconvergencesanddivergencesbetweenpostcolonialfeminist, gay,andlesbianactivism.Itchartsasetofconcernscommontofeminist,gay,andlesbian activistliterature:retrogressivecolonial-eralegislationimpactingthestatusofwomenand sexualminorities;amarkedincreaseinsexualviolence;piecemealreproductivefreedoms and sexual choice under neoliberalism; the emergence and management of the HIV/ AIDS crisis; precariousness of lesbian and transgender concerns within feminist and LGBTQ+ movements; and Non-Governmental Organizations as major actors articu- latingsexualrightsashumanrights.Thismethodologicallyinnovativeworkisbasedon archivalhistoricalresearch,analysesofnationalandinternationalpolicydocuments,close readingsofactivistpublications,andconversationswithactivistsandfoundingeditors. This is an important intervention in the field of gender and sexuality studies and is the winner of the 2020 Feminist Futures, Subversive Histories prize in partner- ship with the NWSA. The book is key reading for scholarsand students in gender, sexuality, comparative literature, and postcolonial studies. Kanika Batra is Professor of English at Texas Tech University. She writes on and teachestransnationalfeministandqueerstudies,postcolonial literature, andcompara- tive literature. She is the author of Caribbean Poetry: Derek Walcott and Edward Brathwaite(2001)andFeministVisionsandQueerFuturesinPostcolonialDrama(2011). SUBVERSIVE HISTORIES, FEMINIST FUTURES NWSA PRIZE The Subversive Histories, Feminist Futures book prize is in collaboration with the National Women’s Studies Association. Edited by Janell Hobson, the series exemplifies original research in feminist his- tories that “subvert” dominant and normative patterns of historical narrative by centering women, gender, and feminist politics. Prize winners represent the best of scholarship that delves into women’s histories, queer histories, people of color his- tories, and reclamations of non-western world. 2020 Winner: Worlding Postcolonial Sexualities Publics, Counterpublics, Human Rights Kanika Batra Runner Up: Afro Native Women’s Survivance Reanae McNeal https://www.routledge.com/Subversive-Histories-Feminist-Futures-NWSA-Prize/ book-series/FEMFUTURES WORLDING POSTCOLONIAL SEXUALITIES Publics, Counterpublics, Human Rights Kanika Batra Firstpublished2022 byRoutledge 2ParkSquare,MiltonPark,Abingdon,OxonOX144RN andbyRoutledge 605ThirdAvenue,NewYork,NY10158 RoutledgeisanimprintoftheTaylor&FrancisGroup,aninformabusiness ©2022KanikaBatra TherightofKanikaBatratobeidentifiedasauthorofthisworkhasbeenasserted byheraccordancewithsections77and78oftheCopyright,DesignsandPatents Act1988. Trademarknotice:Productorcorporatenamesmaybetrademarksorregistered trademarks,andareusedonlyforidentificationandexplanationwithoutintentto infringe. WiththeexceptionofChapter3,nopartofthisbookmaybereprintedor reproducedorutilisedinanyformorbyanyelectronic,mechanical,orother means,nowknownorhereafterinvented,includingphotocopyingand recording,orinanyinformationstorageorretrievalsystem,withoutpermission inwritingfromthepublishers. Chapter3ofthisbookisavailableforfreeinPDFformatasOpenAccessfrom theindividualproductpageatwww.routledge.com.Ithasbeenmadeavailable underaCreativeCommonsAttribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives4.0 license. BritishLibraryCataloguing-in-PublicationData AcataloguerecordforthisbookisavailablefromtheBritishLibrary LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData Names:Batra,Kanika,1972-author. Title:Worldingpostcolonialsexualities:publics,counterpublics,humanrights/ KanikaBatra. Description:Abingdon,Oxon;NewYork,NY:Routledge,2021.|Includes bibliographicalreferencesandindex. Identifiers:LCCN2021011838(print)|LCCN2021011839(ebook)| ISBN9780367772161(hardback)|ISBN9780367772109(paperback)| ISBN9780367772161(ebook)|ISBN9781000430097(adobepdf)| ISBN9781000430127(epub) Subjects:LCSH:Sexualrights–Developingcountries.|Sexualrights–Press coverage–Developingcountries.|Sexualminorities–Developing countries.|Sexualminoritiesinmassmedia.|Humanrights movements–Presscoverage–Developingcountries.|Postcolonialism. Classification:LCCHQ65.5.D44B372021(print)| LCCHQ65.5.D44(ebook)|DDC305.3–dc23 LCrecordavailableathttps://lccn.loc.gov/2021011838 LCebookrecordavailableathttps://lccn.loc.gov/2021011839 ISBN:978-0-367-77216-1(hbk) ISBN:978-0-367-77210-9(pbk) ISBN:978-1-003-17030-3(ebk) DOI:10.4324/9781003170303 TypesetinBembo byTaylor&FrancisBooks For Rich CONTENTS List of figures xi Acknowledgements xiv Abbreviations xviii 1 Introduction: Worlding postcolonial sexualities: Archives, activism, and anterior counterpublics 1 PARTI Abeng, challenging depravation 29 2 “Betta mus cum”: Jamaica as the ‘problem-space’ of gay and lesbian liberation 31 3 “Rights a di plan”: Sistren and sexual solidarities in Jamaica 57 PARTII Azadi, emerging freedoms 81 4 Creating a locational counterpublic: Manushi and the articulation of human rights and sexuality from Delhi, India 83 5 Outing Indian sexualities: Bombay Dost and the limits of queer intersectionality 102
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