- Paperback: 128 pages
- Publisher: Duke University Press (2 April 2009)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0822343827
- ISBN-13: 978-0822343820
- Product Dimensions: 2.2 x 1.5 x 0.2 cm
- Average Customer Review: 2.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 1,259,900 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Description
Review
"A resplendent translation of an underground classic on a subject--homosexual desire - that still remains largely confined to the closet in India. Ruth Vanita has done an admirable service to Indian literature by giving this important work of Hindi fiction another life through her translation and a luminous introduction that brings out the ambiguities of the text and the ambivalences of its path-breaking author. A rare book that will delight and enlighten the common as well as the scholarly reader."--Krishna Baldev Vaid, Hindi novelist "This book is an extraordinarily valuable resource on sexuality. Ruth Vanita's translations of 'Ugra' are fluid and comfortable (no small feat when one is translating from colloquial Hindi); her introduction is well researched, thoroughly documented, and written in lovely style; and her arguments are subtle and replete with enough material to introduce South Asia to a novice and to keep the attention of a reader well versed in the region." --Geeta Patel, author of Lyrical Movements, Historical Hauntings: On Gender, Colonialism, and Desire in Miraji's Urdu Poetry
Product Description
This volume makes available for the first time in English the work of a significant Indian nationalist author, Pandey Bechan Sharma, better known in India as 'Ugra' ('Extreme'). His book "Chocolate", a 1927 collection of eight stories, was the first work of Hindi fiction to focus on male same-sex relations, and its publication sparked India's first public debates about homosexuality. Many prominent figures, including Gandhi, weighed in on the debates, which lasted into the 1950s. This edition, translated and introduced by Ruth Vanita, includes the full text of "Chocolate" along with an excerpt from Ugra's novel "Letters of Some Beautiful Ones" (also published in 1927). In her introduction, Vanita situates Ugra and his writings in relation to Indian nationalist struggles and Hindi literary movements and feuds, and she analyzes the controversies that surrounded "Chocolate". Those outraged by the titillating portrayal of homosexuality labelled the collection obscene. On the other side, although no one explicitly defended homosexuality in public, some justified Ugra's work by arguing that it was the artist's job to educate through provocation. The stories depict male homoeroticism in quotidian situations, such as: a man brings a lover to his disapproving friend's house; and, a good-looking young man becomes the object of desire at his school. The love never ends well, but the depictions are not always unsympathetic. Although Ugra claimed that the stories were aimed at suppressing homosexuality by exposing it, Vanita highlights the ambivalence of his characterizations. Cosmopolitan, educated, and hedonistic, the Hindu and Muslim men he portrayed quote Hindi and Urdu poetry to express their love, and they justify same-sex desire by drawing on literature, philosophy, and world history. Vanita's introduction includes anecdotal evidence that "Chocolate" was enthusiastically received by India's homosexual communities.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
Format:Paperback
In itself this edition is a valuable contribution to understanding sexuality and tracing its legacy in an Indian context. However, the production value of this edition is low and does not warrant the price. Studying this book in a seminar, I noticed that everyone's brand new books were equally bent (to a ridiculous level for a new book) due to the low quality cover. This detracts from the enjoyability and the desire to keep the book as the poor quality cover automatically goes off at a 90 degree angle. I would recommend Chocolate and Other Writings on Male Homoeroticism as a text, but please, buy an earlier edition, not this one.
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