EDITORIAL

The issue of gender as a socio-cultural trope is a much-explored one; but, it is still relevant as a site of trichotomy involving sex, gender constructions, and subjectivity. As a discipline of the social sciences, Gender Studies is invested in meaningful intersections with literature and arts that produce fresh approaches to cultural production and capital. Beginning with the various waves of feminist movements that gradually opened into gay/lesbian consciousness and masculinity studies or queer theories, the issue of gender in our socio-cultural and political matrices is an ever-evolving phenomenon. Recent trends in gender studies proffer a contest between heteronormativity as a matrix and the reality of sexual desires (dreams and fantasies) that often are transgressive or subversive. This contestation factors in the relevance of 'queer' existence and performativity. Interestingly, the idea of the queer deconstructs the notion of identity and 'category' politics that have come to rule our contemporary patterns of established and normative meaning-making ways.

Gender Studies commits to contesting the hierarchy of the legitimate and the rationale of the deviant. The celebration of personal sexual desires besides, issues related to women's liberation and the struggle for identity remain remarkable areas of negotiations within our socio-political and cultural circulations. With the rise of the Third World feminist movement, the recent trends in feminist discourses, and the politics of representation have undergone a new critical reception. With ‘Gender Imaginaries’ as the theme, this volume of Negotiations seeks to address a host of questions, and bring new approaches into the existing interpretations of gender related issues.

We are happy to bring out the 3rd Vol (March 2020) of Negotiations: An International Journal of Literary and Cultural Studies (NIJLS) published by the Department of English, University of North Bengal. The peer-reviewed articles published here raise a whole host of questions that confront established patterns of reception; they critique constructivism in critical understanding and the politics of transcendence that our 'embodied' existence has come to trigger and test. We are profoundly thankful to all the contributors, reviewers, members of the advisory board, the in-house editorial team, departmental staff, and the students without whom it would not have been possible to see the volume come to life. We are thankful to the administration of the University of North Bengal for their constant support especially when the trials of the pandemic have reset our life buttons.

As for now, over to the readers.

Dr. Zinia Mitra, Dr. Pradipta Shyam Chowdhury
Editors

ARTICLES