The Phobic and the Erotic

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A flamboyantly eclectic anthology that explodes the myths about the lines which divide us—the heterosexual from the homosexual, the normative from the ‘alternative’, the phobic from the obsessive, the moral from the titillating, the academic from the activist. The Phobic and the Erotic brings together a stunning array of serious, committed writing about what is both most visible and most hidden in our lives: our sexualities. While our social and cultural lives are determined by a fairly universal heterosexual code, this anthology argues that it is imperative to recognize multiple sites and discourses as equally valid. It ‘outs’ the ‘alternative’. Constructed on the premise that it is time to foreground those sexual choices and identities that are counter-hetero-normative as the sites at which the most significant politics are being played out, The Phobic and the Erotic captures the complex issues, theories, contexts and debates crowding the sexualities arena in contemporary Indian society.

‘A compellingly subversive book that takes forward the project of complicating, questioning, and rethinking the terms and concepts that are naturalized by the discourses of sexuality emerging from the various locations in contemporary Indian culture. It brings together an interesting and wide-ranging set of writings that combine academic rigour and activist commitment; philosophical inquiry and poetic musing; and self-reflexive critique and textual exploration.’—Culture, Health and Sexuality