Through analysing select queer pandemic poems from The World That Belongs To Us: An Anthology Of Queer Poetry From South Asia, this paper examines ‘little (resilience) narratives’ from the margins, which are not only a response to adversity but also ‘a way of being’ (queer), a celebration of the alternatives, experiences, and identities which contribute to the diversity of South Asian queer community. The paper contextualises queer bodies as a metaphor of ‘little (resistance) narratives’, a deconstructive site, a ‘polysemic’ postmodern self in contention with the phallogocentric discourses. Through referring Sara Ahmad’s ‘Queer Phenomenology’, which situates queer body and space in Covid-19 pandemic, the paper understands how queer subjectivities are involved in rewriting and reinventing the traditional (hetero)patriarchal structures into new forms of queer(y)ing. Further, drawing on Judith Butler's What World Is This? A Pandemic Phenomenology, the paper poses inquiries regarding orienting oneself, within spatial, social, and planetary contexts. In a world where the pandemic has blurred the boundaries between the human and the nonhuman, where issues like precarity, poverty, racism, transphobia, and sexism are pervasive, Butler explores the fundamental questions of "what makes a life livable?" and "how long can I live like this?" (29). As well, the queer performative bodies mentioned in the select poems embrace their sense of ‘in-betweenness’ and revel in transgression, alterity, and defiance. Through these gendered and sexual (re)presentations, queer resilience, bodily acts and performances amplify a leap into the future possibilities of genderqueer, and makes a space for alternative ‘coalitions.’

Authors:
Saher Bano, Indian Institute of Technology Roorkee, India

About the Presenter(s)
Saher Bano is a Senior Research Fellow at the Dept of HSS, IIT Roorkee. Her research interests include Gender & Queer Studies, focused on Postmodern literatures and theory. Currently, she is working on Contemporary Queer Feminist Poetry & Cinema.

Connect on Linkedin
https://www.linkedin.com/in/saher-bano-251b27233/

Connect on ResearchGate
https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Saher-Bano-2

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