Author: Bulbul Gupta

Abstract: The paper examines the vicissitudes of identity vis-à-vis vulnerability of Rosie, a transgender person in Geetanjali Shree’s, Tomb of Sand (a Hindi-language fiction translated into English by an American translator, Daisy Rockwell) that won the International Booker Prize in 2022 from a queer theory and transgender theory framework. As the author situates Rosie in ‘vulnerablility’ of varied sorts – gender, class and so on, the paper explores how Geetanjali Shree opens up analysis and debate of issues such as invisibility, transphobia, intersectionality of identities, ‘central self’, the ‘double bind’ of gender representation and sexed body, gender fluidity and personal empowerment in context of transgenderism. Further, the paper aims to gain an insight into the manner in which the author weaves her way through the issues related to transgenderism to not just enter into the historically contested, complex and dynamic understanding of gender and sexuality but to also present her own articulations on the questions related to the epistemology of the two.

Keywords: Gender, Identity, Queer, Sex, Transgender Studies, vulnerability

Article Info: Received: 08 Nov 2024; Received in revised form: 06 Dec 2024; Accepted: 12 Dec 2024; Available online: 18 Dec 2024

DOI: 10.22161/ijels.96.44