Sakhiyani : lesbian desire in ancient and modern India
Giti Thadani (Author)
"The product of many years of research, this unique book presents fascinating perspectives on contemporary lesbian life in India and unravels some of the history of lesbian desire from centuries past. Through detailed examination of mythology, cosmology, ancient art and artefacts and her exegesis of ancient Sanskrit texts, Thadani constructs a tapestry of feminine kinship, genealogy and sexual or erotic bonding between women (sakhiyani) in ancient India. The author offers an historical perspective on the effect of colonization upon lesbian identities in India, showing how women were viewed by Western imperialists either as soft victims or as sexually dangerous, possessing an overgrown clitoris and in need of heterosexual domestication. The second half of the book focuses on contemporary lesbian realities and issues, including lesbian marriages, suicide pacts, forging lesbian space, lesbian human rights, lesbophobia, sexual exile and the different construction of gender, family and possible kinship alliances."-- Provided by publisher
History
1 online resource : color illustrations
9781474287043, 1474287042
957525060
Cover; Half-title; Title; Copyright; Contents; Dedication; Preface; Acknowledgements; Glossary; 1. Lesbian Invisibility; Lesbian cosmography; A note on language; Notes; 2. The Dual Feminine; The dual feminine mosaic; Feminine triangles; Notes; 3. The Myths of Usha and Urvashi; Urvashi and Pururvas; Nirriti and the semiotics of death and knowledge; 4. The Control of Lesbian Sexuality; Embryology and medicalization; Myths of sexual inversion; Notes; 5. Legacies of Colonialism; Language and issues of identity; The colonial legacy; Notes; 6. Westernization; Those poor things Lesbianism, a personal problem7. Love and Death; Lesbian marriages; Notes; 8. Lesbian Identities; Bibliography; Index
Originally published in 1996 by Cassell