Read more
This book studies modern literary discourses of sexuality in the Tamil context from the early to the last decades of the twentieth century. Examining the representation of masculine desire in the works of authors like K.P. Rajagopalan, T. Janakiraman, Karichan Kunju, M.V. Venkatram, Dandapani Jeyakantan, and Tanjai Prakash, this work takes into account a spectrum of sensual intimacies that are irreducible to the sexual. The twofold aim is to trace the shifting notions of the sexual and to unsettle normative structures of understanding the body, gender, and sexuality.
List of contents
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction
- 1: . K.P. Rajagopalan: Desire and Ideal Love
- 2: T. Janakiraman: Male Sexuality and the De-Idealized Woman
- 3: Karichan Kunju and M.V. Venkatram: Between Desire and Disease
- 4: Mauni: Desire as Dream and Fantasy
- 5: Dandapani Jeyakantan: Loving Outcastes, Spirituality, and Reformation
- 6: Tanjai Prakash: Between Desire and Labour
- Conclusion
- Bibliography
- Index
- About the Author
About the author
Kiran Keshavamurthy is an assistant professor of cultural studies at the Centre for Studies in Social Sciences, Calcutta. His research interests include caste and sexuality studies and modern Indian literatures.
Summary
Moving away from a dominant cultural equation of love, desire, and intimacy with marriage, Beyond Desire offers a radical view that reinstates the body as an enduring symbol of desire. Drawing on the works of seven twentieth-century male Tamil writers beginning with K.P. Rajagopalan, this book explores a spectrum of male-female intimacies wherein desire, liberated from the sexual act, acquires its own creative agency. Through a reading of selected works of writers like T. Janakiraman, Karichan Kunju, Mauni, M.V. Venkatram, Dandapani Jeyakantan, and Tanjai Prakash, this book focuses on the category of the sensual that intertwines the sexual and other modes of relating to the world through spirituality, social reform, and artistic labour.
As most of these narratives are articulated through male characters, many of whom are torn between expressing their desire and preserving their religious integrity, the overarching mission remains rooted in discerning the shifts in male perception. The first book in English on modern Tamil literature, it offers alternative readings of sexualities that resist social and sexual definitions, and is a significant contribution to literary scholarship in Tamil.
