Viral assemblages and witnessing extraordinary times: queer patchworks of intimacy, precarity and affect in an Indian city

Dasgupta, Rohit K. ORCID: 0000-0001-5837-0088 (2022) Viral assemblages and witnessing extraordinary times: queer patchworks of intimacy, precarity and affect in an Indian city. Journal of Intercultural Studies, 43 (6). pp. 880-896. ISSN 0725-6868

Text (Viral Assemblages and Witnessing Extraordinary Times Queer Patchworks of Intimacy Precarity and Affect in an Indian City) - Published Version Available under License Creative Commons Attribution Non-commercial No Derivatives. Download (2MB)

• Scopus publication

Abstract

This article is based on ethnographic field work conducted in Kolkata during 2019–2021 with queer and trans people during the COVID pandemic. This article develops a new framework of queer patchworks and discusses the various ways through which queer and trans communities are navigating survival during these non-normative times. This paper particularly responds to how digital media is being used by individuals and organisations as a form of witness, belonging, intimacy and care. Queer people in India live within different forms of marginality and precarity, homophobia, caste violence, unemployment and homelessness. This article brings together patchworks of whatsapp texts, broken zoom conversations, cooking gossip and addas on the banks of river Hooghly as a nod to these new realities which are reshaping queer identities; thus, offering new ways to also acknowledge, accommodate and ‘queer’ what counts as knowledge. A particular focus was moving away from totalising narratives and instead examine the tensions of being queer in contemporary India alongside the many contradictions. In turn, this engenders wider questions about queer desire, nationalism and belonging.

Item Type:	Article
Additional Information:	© 2022 The Author(s).
Divisions:	LSE
Subjects:	H Social Sciences > HM Sociology J Political Science H Social Sciences > HT Communities. Classes. Races
Date Deposited:	23 Jan 2025 10:48
Last Modified:	01 Feb 2025 04:09
URI:	http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/id/eprint/127026

Actions (login required)

View Item