The Phobic and the Erotic : The Politics of Sexualities in Contemporary India

S. Bandyopadhyay, L. Ghandi, P. Nayar, B. Bose, S. Bhattacharyya

An 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 an 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 issues, theories, contexts and debates crowding the sexualities arena in the contemporary Indian society.