Assignment on Literature Review
Title: A Semiotic Investigation of the Positioning of Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, Intersex, and Asexual People in Selected Indian Films.
Ph.D. Student : Nidhi Jethava
In the subject of ENGLISH under the Faculty of Arts, Maharaja Krishnakumarsinhji Bhavnagar University, Bhavnagar
Paper: 1 Research Methodology
A Short Literature Review on A Semiotic Investigation of the Positioning of Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, Intersex, and Asexual People in Selected Indian Films.
A Table of all works reviewed or considered for review.
1. A Table of all works reviewed or considered for review.
Table 2. Names of the journals or books and the numbers of the relevant articles included.
2. Annotated Bibliography of selected works Chronologically
Butler, Judith. “Bodies That Matter: On the Discursive Limits of Sex.” London: Routledge, (1993). Print.
Judith Butler’s Bodies That Matter: On the Discursive Limits of “Sex” (1996) expands on the concept of gender performativity by examining the potential for sex to be produced, maintained, and eventually materialized within a body in order to further heteronormative goals. Butler seems to say that as long as sex is perceived as having no value, it is natural. As soon as it develops social character, value judgments begin to be made about it. In light of this, it can be said that the social construction of nature assumes the social's cancellation of the natural. Butler says sex is no longer biological under the current cultural norms because it presupposes value judgments.
Vanita, Ruth and Saleem Kidwai. Same Sex Love in India: A Literary History. India: Penguine Books, 2000. Print.
Ruth Vanita and Saleem Kidwai’s Same Sex Love in India (2000) have critically examined the social patterns where homosexuals are marginalized. This book challenges preconceived notions about Indian culture and Foucault's view that homosexuality is a nineteenth-century invention by revealing complex discourses about homosexuality in India, rich metaphorical traditions to represent it, and the use of names and terms to distinguish same-sex from cross-sex love as far back as the Middle Ages. This collection emphasizes the existence of heterosexual, transgender, and gay relationships against the backdrop of Indian society's political, legal, sociocultural, and religious implications. This work clearly connects heterosexuality's non-absoluteness and gender's non-reality. It further demonstrates that there is no inherent or natural reason why a person would choose to be a man or a woman if society has transformed humans into men and women by mechanisms like clothing, social roles, work division, and taught mannerisms.
Aaron, Michele, editor. New Queer Cinema: A Critical Reader. Edinburgh University Press, 2004.
New Queer Cinema is the name given to a wave of queer films that gained critical acclaim on the festival circuit in the early 1990s. Coined, and largely chronicled, by film theorist B. Ruby Rich, New Queer Cinema, or NQC as I will refer to it, represented the exciting prospect that lesbian and gay images and filmmakers had turned a corner. No longer burdened by the approval-seeking sackcloth of positive imagery or the relative obscurity of marginal production, films could be both radical and popular, stylish and economically viable.
Harpham, Geoffrey, and M.H. Abrams. A Glossary of Literary Terms. Cengage Learning, 2012.
“Queer theory is often used to designate the combined area of gay and lesbian studies, together with the theoretical and critical writings about all modes of variance—such as cross-dressing, bisexuality, and transsexuality— from society’s normative model of sexual identity, orientation, and activities.”
Labade, Sachin Ramesh. “A Semiotic Investigation of Positioning of the Queer in Indian Film Narrative.” 2016 Shodhganga: a reservoir of Indian theses @ INFLIBNET
Indian Cinema, which is said to have not developed a recognizable domestic queer vector before two decades, is now emerging gradually making Queer subjects and subjectivities more visible. While the mainstream Indian cinema created codified queer stereotypes such as „effeminate‟ comic sidekicks, monstrous villains, or psychopaths very much in line with the Western stereotypes, certain film narratives, have given voice to the marginalized queer subjects, by not only recognizing and making visible the very fact of their marginalization but by repositioning them from the peripheries to the center of the narrative.
Rao, R. Raj. Criminal Love? Queer Theory, Culture, and Politics in India. SAGE Publications, 2017.
R Raj Rao’s Criminal Love? Queer Theory, Culture, And Politics in India (2017) is also a fascinating book, in this book Raj Rao discussed how heterosexual and homosexuality are contradictory. In this book, he discusses the IPC 377, and this article is actually made when the Britishers were ruling on us. In this book, the author discussed MSM ( Men who have sex with, who may not identify as gay, and who often perform heteronomative hierarchies in their sexual relationships with other men). He contends that the existence of heterosexual society is the source of heteronormativity. In a heterosexual society, sexual and gender norms are regarded as normal, inevitable, and final. Additionally, those who do not conform to heterosexual society's norms are viewed as annoying outcasts. R. Raj Rao refers to this hegemonic heterosexual culture's operation in contemporary Indian society as heteronormativity. When it comes to same-sex marriage, R Raj Rao opposes Ruth Vanita more strongly than anyone else. Marriage, in his opinion, is the worst word. It carries a heavy burden of heterosexual expectations. The heterosexual concept of marriage. He contends that borrowing it in same-sex relationships results in the homonormativity of society.
Jain, Neha. “Indian Hindi Cinema and Queer Gaze: Presentation of LGBTQ+ in Bollywood.” International Journal for Global Academic & Scientific Research, vol. 1, no. 4, 2022, pp. 01–16., doi:10.55938/ijgasr.v1i4.34.
The contents of the film are frequently taken from society and vice versa, and the term is used to designate a broad range of sexual identities, including non-cisgender. Without a doubt, the LGBT movement in India has benefited enormously from the movies. Like many other modern social movements, the Indian queer movement seeks to change society. a shift in our perception of sexuality away from seeing it as a passing phase. His objective is to dismantle the constructed barriers of predominate notions that characterize the typical adult's sexual world.
3. Reorganization of the Order:
Judith Butler’s Bodies That Matter: On the Discursive Limits of “Sex” (1996) expands on the concept of gender performativity by examining the potential for sex to be produced, maintained, and eventually materialized within a body in order to further heteronormative goals. Butler seems to say that as long as sex is perceived as having no value, it is natural. As soon as it develops social character, value judgments begin to be made about it. In light of this, it can be said that the social construction of nature assumes the social's cancellation of the natural. Butler says sex is no longer biological under the current cultural norms because it presupposes value judgments.
Ruth Vanita and Saleem Kidwai’s Same Sex Love in India (2000) have critically examined the social patterns where homosexuals are marginalized. This book challenges preconceived notions about Indian culture and Foucault's view that homosexuality is a nineteenth-century invention by revealing complex discourses about homosexuality in India, rich metaphorical traditions to represent it, and the use of names and terms to distinguish same-sex from cross-sex love as far back as the Middle Ages. This collection emphasizes the existence of heterosexual, transgender, and gay relationships against the backdrop of Indian society's political, legal, sociocultural, and religious implications. This work emphasizes a clear connection between heterosexuality's non-absoluteness and gender's non-reality. It further demonstrates that there is no inherent or natural reason why a person would choose to be a man or a woman if society has transformed humans into men and women by mechanisms like clothing, social roles, work division, and taught mannerisms.
“Queer theory is often used to designate the combined area of gay and lesbian studies, together with the theoretical and critical writings about all modes of variance—such as cross-dressing, bisexuality, and transsexuality— from society’s normative model of sexual identity, orientation, and activities.”
R Raj Rao’s Criminal Love? Queer Theory, Culture, And Politics in India (2017) is also a fascinating book, in this book Raj Rao discussed how heterosexual and homosexuality are contradictory. In this book, he discusses the IPC 377, and this article is actually made when the Britishers were ruling on us. In this book, the author discussed MSM ( Men who have sex with, who may not identify as gay, and who often perform heteronomative hierarchies in their sexual relationships with other men). He contends that the existence of heterosexual society is the source of heteronormativity. In a heterosexual society, sexual and gender norms are regarded as normal, inevitable, and final. Additionally, those who do not conform to heterosexual society's norms are viewed as annoying outcasts. R. Raj Rao refers to this hegemonic heterosexual culture's operation in contemporary Indian society as heteronormativity. When it comes to same-sex marriage, R Raj Rao opposes Ruth Vanita more strongly than anyone else. Marriage, in his opinion, is the worst word. It carries a heavy burden of heterosexual expectations. The heterosexual concept of marriage. He contends that borrowing it in same-sex relationships results in the homonormativity of society.
The term New Queer Cinema is very popular, “New Queer Cinema is the name given to a wave of queer films that gained critical acclaim on the festival circuit in the early 1990s. Coined, and largely chronicled, by film theorist B. Ruby Rich, New Queer Cinema, or NQC as I will refer to it, represented the exciting prospect that lesbian and gay images and filmmakers had turned a corner. No longer burdened by the approval-seeking sackcloth of positive imagery or the relative obscurity of marginal production, films could be both radical and popular, stylish and economically viable.”
Labade, Sachin Ramesh. In his thesis, “A Semiotic Investigation of Positioning of the Queer in Indian Film Narrative.” has examined Indian Cinema, which is said to have not developed a recognizable domestic queer vector before two decades, is now emerging gradually making Queer subjects and subjectivities more visible. While the mainstream Indian cinema created codified queer stereotypes such as „effeminate‟ comic sidekicks, monstrous villains, or psychopaths very much in line with the Western stereotypes, certain film narratives, have given voice to the marginalized queer subjects, by not only recognizing and making visible the very fact of their marginalization but by repositioning them from the peripheries to the center of the narrative.
“The contents of the film are frequently taken from society and vice versa, and the term is used to designate a broad range of sexual identities, including non-cisgender. Without a doubt, the LGBT movement in India has benefited enormously from the movies. Like many other modern social movements, the Indian queer movement seeks to change society. a shift in our perception of sexuality away from seeing it as a passing phase. (Jain, N.#)
4. Logically Hooking Up of the Paragraphs
Queer is an umbrella term, and for a few decades, queer theory is a fascinating theory to look upon.
“Queer theory is often used to designate the combined area of gay and lesbian studies, together with the theoretical and critical writings about all modes of variance—such as cross-dressing, bisexuality, and transsexuality— from society’s normative model of sexual identity, orientation, and activities.” (Harpham and Abrams #) For more understanding of this the umbrella term Judith Butler in his book Bodies That Matter: On the Discursive Limits of “Sex” (1996) expands on the concept of gender performativity by examining the potential for Sex to be produced, maintained, and eventually materialized within a body in order to further heteronormative goals. Butler seems to say that as long as sex is perceived as having no value, it is natural. As soon as it develops social character, value judgments begin to be made about it. In light of this, it can be said that the social construction of nature assumes the social's cancellation of the natural. Butler says sex is no longer biological under the current cultural norms because it presupposes value judgments.
In the West, this theory was emerging around the 1990s, but if one could look at ancient Indian history one comes across the queer character representation in the Indin history. Ruth Vanita and Saleem Kidwai in their book Same-Sex Love in India (2000) have critically examined the social patterns where homosexuals are marginalized. This book challenges preconceived notions about Indian culture and Foucault's view that homosexuality is a nineteenth-century invention by revealing complex discourses about homosexuality in India, rich metaphorical traditions to represent it, and the use of names and terms to distinguish same-sex from cross-sex love as far back as the Middle Ages. This collection emphasizes the existence of heterosexual, transgender, and gay relationships against the backdrop of Indian society's political, legal, sociocultural, and religious implications. This work clearly connects heterosexuality's non-absoluteness and gender's non-reality. It further demonstrates that there is no inherent or natural reason why a person would choose to be a man or a woman if society has transformed humans into men and women by mechanisms like clothing, social roles, work division, and taught mannerisms.
Considering ancient times, we came across homosexual Indian ancient culture, so in our ancient times some of the terms were there for instance gay, transgender, and lesbian but there were marginalized. Now the time has changed and cinema plays a very vital role in society. In modern time, acceptance of the third gender is also becoming problematic, though in a country like India third gender get legal rights they are still fighting for social acceptance.
R Raj Rao’s Criminal Love? Queer Theory, Culture, And Politics in India (2017) is also a fascinating book, in this book Raj Rao discussed how heterosexual and homosexuality are contradictory. In this book, he discusses the IPC 377, and this article is actually made when the Britishers were ruling on us. In this book, the author discussed MSM ( Men who have sex with, who may not identify as gay, and who often perform heteronomative hierarchies in their sexual relationships with other men). He contends that the existence of heterosexual society is the source of heteronormativity. In a heterosexual society, sexual and gender norms are regarded as normal, inevitable, and final. Additionally, those who do not conform to heterosexual society's norms are viewed as annoying outcasts. R. Raj Rao refers to this hegemonic heterosexual culture's operation in contemporary Indian society as heteronormativity. When it comes to same-sex marriage, R Raj Rao opposes Ruth Vanita more strongly than anyone else. Marriage, in his opinion, is the worst word. It carries a heavy burden of heterosexual expectations. The heterosexual concept of marriage. He contends that borrowing it in same-sex relationships results in the homonormativity of society.
Looking up to ancient and modern times, the third gender, their acceptance, and identities are somehow problematic. Human is part of the culture, and in any culture, cinema plays a very important role. There is one term ‘The New Queer Cinema’.
The term New Queer Cinema is very popular, “New Queer Cinema is the name given to a wave of queer films that gained critical acclaim on the festival circuit in the early 1990s. Coined, and largely chronicled, by film theorist B. Ruby Rich, New Queer Cinema, or NQC as I will refer to it, represented the exciting prospect that lesbian and gay images and filmmakers had turned a corner. No longer burdened by the approval-seeking sackcloth of positive imagery or the relative obscurity of marginal production, films could be both radical and popular, stylish and economically viable.” (Aaron #)
Cinema is a powerful weapon for bringing change in society and mentality of the human being. It is part of our culture and while we are talking about the culture one should not neglect the importance of cinema in popular culture. Queer cinema this concept is very fascinating to examine and look upon especially the representation of LGBTQIA+. LAbde, Sachin Ramesh has examined The semiotic representation of queer in Indian Film Narrative that Indian Cinema, which is said to have not developed a recognizable domestic queer vector for two decades, is now emerging gradually making Queer subjects and subjectivities more visible. While the mainstream Indian cinema created codified queer stereotypes such as „effeminate‟ comic sidekicks, monstrous villains, or psychopaths very much in line with the Western stereotypes, certain film narratives, have given voice to the marginalized queer subjects, by not only recognizing and making visible the very fact of their marginalization but by repositioning them from the peripheries to the center of the narrative.
In the 21st century cinema has the power to bring change in the thought of people because “The contents of the film are frequently taken from society and vice versa, and the term is used to designate a broad range of sexual identities, including non-cisgender. Without a doubt, the LGBT movement in India has benefited enormously from the movies. Like many other modern social movements, the Indian queer movement seeks to change society. a shift in our perception of sexuality away from seeing it as a passing phase. (Jain, N.#) but again one should be rechecked our cross-verify the actual situation of the third gender. Are cinema depicted actually true about the conflict of the third gender?
5. Write the concluding Paragraph of “Review of Related Literature:
Concluding the things one can observe the beginning of the queer theory was very aggressive, initially third gender and their acceptance was very problematic and controversial. Time and again our perceptions are changed. There are some movies that discussed the idea of identity and acceptance but still a queer community and their acceptance and representation are problematic. As cinema is part of the human and it is played a very important role in human life because cinema has the ability to represent any concept and change the perception of a large group of people. Now one supposes to say that after the four years of discrimination of Article 377 Indian cinema started to represent homosexuality.
6. Write “Introduction”:
In popular culture, cinema plays a very important role in the population of any particular country. While the talk comes about the representation of the third gender in films as a central character again the talk becomes controversial as well as part of cultural studies. In the 21st century, our social and mental perspectives are slowly changing toward LGBTQAI+ people. From ancient times to modern times, there are always some negative and positive aspects of the acceptance of queer people. So, when people are living in the time of web series and cinema it is very important to examine or investigate the positioning of the LGBTQAI+ community in films.
7. Final Draft of Literature Review
A semiotic investigation of the positioning of Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer, Intersex, and Asexual people in selected Indian films.
In popular culture, cinema plays a very important role in the population of any particular country. While the talk comes about the representation of the third gender in films as a central character again the talk becomes controversial as well as part of cultural studies. In the 21st century, our social and mental perspectives are slowly changing toward LGBTQAI+ people. From ancient times to modern times, there are always some negative and positive aspects of the acceptance of queer people. So, when people are living in the time of web series and cinema it is very important to examine or investigate the positioning of the LGBTQAI+ community in films.
Queer is an umbrella term, and for a few decades, queer theory is a fascinating theory to look upon.“Queer theory is often used to designate the combined area of gay and lesbian studies, together with the theoretical and critical writings about all modes of variance—such as cross-dressing, bisexuality, and transsexuality— from society’s normative model of sexual identity, orientation, and activities.” (Harpham and Abrams #) For more understanding of this the umbrella term Judith Butler in his book Bodies That Matter: On the Discursive Limits of “Sex” (1996) expands on the concept of gender performativity by examining the potential for Sex to be produced, maintained, and eventually materialized within a body in order to further heteronormative goals. Butler seems to say that as long as sex is perceived as having no value, it is natural. As soon as it develops social character, value judgments begin to be made about it. In light of this, it can be said that the social construction of nature assumes the social's cancellation of the natural. Butler says sex is no longer biological under the current cultural norms because it presupposes value judgments.
In the West, this theory was emerging around the 1990s, but if one could look at ancient Indian history one comes across the queer character representation in the Indin history. Ruth Vanita and Saleem Kidwai in their book Same-Sex Love in India (2000) have critically examined the social patterns where homosexuals are marginalized. This book challenges preconceived notions about Indian culture and Foucault's view that homosexuality is a nineteenth-century invention by revealing complex discourses about homosexuality in India, rich metaphorical traditions to represent it, and the use of names and terms to distinguish same-sex from cross-sex love as far back as the Middle Ages. This collection emphasizes the existence of heterosexual, transgender, and gay relationships against the backdrop of Indian society's political, legal, sociocultural, and religious implications. This work clearly connects heterosexuality's non-absoluteness and gender's non-reality. It further demonstrates that there is no inherent or natural reason why a person would choose to be a man or a woman if society has transformed humans into men and women by mechanisms like clothing, social roles, work division, and taught mannerisms.
Considering ancient times, we came across homosexual Indian ancient culture, so in our ancient times some of the terms were there for instance gay, transgender, and lesbian but there were marginalized. Now the time has changed and cinema plays a very vital role in society. In modern time, acceptance of the third gender is also becoming problematic, though in a country like India third gender get legal rights they are still fighting for social acceptance.
R Raj Rao’s Criminal Love? Queer Theory, Culture, And Politics in India (2017) is also a fascinating book, in this book Raj Rao discussed how heterosexual and homosexuality are contradictory. In this book, he discusses the IPC 377, and this article is actually made when the Britishers were ruling on us. In this book, the author discussed MSM ( Men who have sex with, who may not identify as gay, and who often perform heteronomative hierarchies in their sexual relationships with other men). He contends that the existence of heterosexual society is the source of heteronormativity. In a heterosexual society, sexual and gender norms are regarded as normal, inevitable, and final. Additionally, those who do not conform to heterosexual society's norms are viewed as annoying outcasts. R. Raj Rao refers to this hegemonic heterosexual culture's operation in contemporary Indian society as heteronormativity. When it comes to same-sex marriage, R Raj Rao opposes Ruth Vanita more strongly than anyone else. Marriage, in his opinion, is the worst word. It carries a heavy burden of heterosexual expectations. The heterosexual concept of marriage. He contends that borrowing it in same-sex relationships results in the homonormativity of society.
Looking up to ancient and modern times, the third gender, their acceptance, and identities are somehow problematic. Human is part of the culture, and in any culture, cinema plays a very important role. There is one term ‘The New Queer Cinema’.
The term New Queer Cinema is very popular, “New Queer Cinema is the name given to a wave of queer films that gained critical acclaim on the festival circuit in the early 1990s. Coined, and largely chronicled, by film theorist B. Ruby Rich, New Queer Cinema, or NQC as I will refer to it, represented the exciting prospect that lesbian and gay images and filmmakers had turned a corner. No longer burdened by the approval-seeking sackcloth of positive imagery or the relative obscurity of marginal production, films could be both radical and popular, stylish and economically viable.” (Aaron #)
Cinema is a powerful weapon for bringing change in society and mentality of the human being. It is part of our culture and while we are talking about the culture one should not neglect the importance of cinema in popular culture. Queer cinema this concept is very fascinating to examine and look upon especially the representation of LGBTQIA+. LAbde, Sachin Ramesh has examined The semiotic representation of queer in Indian Film Narrative that Indian Cinema, which is said to have not developed a recognizable domestic queer vector for two decades, is now emerging gradually making Queer subjects and subjectivities more visible. While the mainstream Indian cinema created codified queer stereotypes such as „effeminate‟ comic sidekicks, monstrous villains, or psychopaths very much in line with the Western stereotypes, certain film narratives, have given voice to the marginalized queer subjects, by not only recognizing and making visible the very fact of their marginalization but by repositioning them from the peripheries to the center of the narrative.
In the 21st century cinema has the power to bring change in the thought of people because “The contents of the film are frequently taken from society and vice versa, and the term is used to designate a broad range of sexual identities, including non-cisgender. Without a doubt, the LGBT movement in India has benefited enormously from the movies. Like many other modern social movements, the Indian queer movement seeks to change society. a shift in our perception of sexuality away from seeing it as a passing phase. (Jain, N.#) but again one should be rechecked our cross-verify the actual situation of the third gender. Are cinema depicted actually true about the conflict of the third gender?
Concluding the things one can observe the beginning of the queer theory was very aggressive, initially third gender and their acceptance was very problematic and controversial. Time and again our perceptions are changed. There are some movies that discussed the idea of identity and acceptance but still a queer community and their acceptance and representation are problematic. As cinema is part of the human and it is played a very important role in human life because cinema has the ability to represent any concept and change the perception of a large group of people. Now one supposes to say that after the four years of discrimination of Article 377 Indian cinema started to represent homosexuality.
Works Cited
Aaron, Michele, editor. New Queer Cinema: A Critical Reader. Edinburgh University Press, 2004.
Butler, Judith. Bodies that matter: on the discursive limits of "sex". Routledge, 1993.
Harpham, Geoffrey, and M.H. Abrams. A Glossary of Literary Terms. Cengage Learning, 2012.
Jain, Neha. “Indian Hindi Cinema and Queer Gaze: Presentation of LGBTQ+ in Bollywood.” International Journal for Global Academic & Scientific Research, vol. 1, no. 4, 2022, pp. 01–16., doi:10.55938/ijgasr.v1i4.34.
Kidwai, Saleem, and Ruth Vanita, editors. Same-Sex Love in India: Readings from Literature and History. Palgrave Macmillan US, 2000.
Labade, Sachin Ramesh. “A Semiotic Investigation of Positioning of the Queer in Indian Film Narrative.” 2016 Shodhganga: a reservoir of Indian theses @ INFLIBNET
Rao, R. Raj. Criminal Love? Queer Theory, Culture, and Politics in India. SAGE Publications, 2017.
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