Secret Writings of Hoshang Merchant

Erscheinungsjahr 2016
ISBN: 978-0-19-946596-5
Verlag: Oxford University Press

Buch, Englisch, 248 Seiten, Format (B × H): 151 mm x 225 mm, Gewicht: 376 g

' [T]his is no fiction. I have scars on my body and my soul to prove this.'

Never a shrinking violet, Hoshang Merchant came out of the closet early in his youth. A bard, a teacher, and a lover who has lived many lives, he is the quintessential gay who once cross-dressed, and yet defies categorization. In Secret Writings, he recounts his extraordinary life and splendid experiences ranging across countries and cultures. His is a story of the prejudice and neglect that are part of everyday gay life, and how he channelled his despair into creating poetry. He quotes Rumi, Ghalib, and Mir, and writes with searing honesty about his long and short love affairs, his improbable sex life as both an initiator and a yielding partner, and his inner turmoil. Sex becomes love and love becomes poetry in his writing.

Merchant yells at the moral guardians of law and culture, asks uncomfortable questions, and shocks his readers. This rare book opens a window to the myriad worlds of an avant-garde.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Merchant, Hoshang

Rath, Akshaya K.

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Literaturwissenschaft Literaturwissenschaft: Prosa, Erzählung, Roman, Prosaautoren
• Geisteswissenschaften Literaturwissenschaft Literaturwissenschaft: Lyrik und Dichter
• Sozialwissenschaften Soziologie | Soziale Arbeit Soziale Gruppen/Soziale Themen Gender Studies: Homosexualität, LGBTQ+

Inhaltsverzeichnis

- Acknowledgments

- Introduction

- I

- Literature: A Different Muse

- The Oedipus Story as Detective Fiction

- Migritude of Migrating Swans: Yeats and Tagore

- To the Rose upon the Rood of Time

- The St. John of the Cross: Poems of Roy Campbell

- And Jesus Wept Poetry in a Time of Terror! Agha Shahid Ali

- Darwish/Alis Eleven Stars over Andalusia: First Impression

- Reviewing Translations: Some Thoughts

- II

- Autobiography: The Gay Gaze

- India and I Share a Birthday

- I Visit Laxmas House

- My Parsi English

- III

- Sexuality: Othering the Nation

- 1001 Nights: Queer Places, People, and Politics

- Indian Homoeroticism

- I Ancient India

- II Medieval India

- Sex in the Indian English Novel

- Gay Indian Poetry

- Pornography

- IV

- Matriarchy: Mothering the Nation

- The Solaces of Matriarchy

- Sappho: Feminized Men and the Question of Flux

- Indian Masculinities: Beyond Gender and Matriarchy

- V

- Postscript

- A Gay Lexicon

- My Secret Writing Life (Personal Essay by Hoshang Merchant)

- Chronology of Complete Works of Hoshang Merchant

- Bibliography

- About the Author and the Editor

Über Autor(innen)

Hoshang Merchant has many notable works to his credit. A well-known poet and teacher, he recently retired from the University of Hyderabad, India, after twenty-six years of teaching.

Akshaya K. Rath currently teaches English at the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, National Institute of Technology Rourkela, India.