Abstract
Being Janana: Language and Sexuality in Contemporary India
Dr. Ila Nagar writes:
This talk highlights how members of the janana community in India make meaning in the marginalization of their sexuality and desire through their language performativity. Jananas are same sex desiring men. In spite of their desire for other men, they maintain heteronormatively and culturally defined masculine positions within their socio-economic space. I analyze the janana community, and individual jananas, within the context of larger social movements in Lucknow, not just through the single lens of their sexuality. I highlight the connection between how identity is manifest and what motivates particular manifestations. I situate janana subjectivity as emerging in dialogue with social, cultural, linguistic, and legal happenings around them and put the positionality of the ethnographer, in this case me, in conversation with the findings of my research.
Location and Address
Cathedral of Learning, 332