Queering Normativity and South Asian Public Culture

“In offering nothing less than a genealogy of the normal in the political modernity of South Asia and especially India, Luther sheds much light on the counternormative and antinormative, which are a constant and perhaps even hopeful presence in this stimulating book.”

—Rahul Rao, University of St Andrews, UK

“I urge scholars of sexuality to read the aptly titled, Wrong Readings Only, so that their own readings slant along the ‘right’ orientations.”

—Geeta Patel, University of Virginia, USA


“To queer normativity, Luther deftly argues, is to uncover the contradictory cultural logic of the ordinary, the commonsensical, and to read queer life anew.  A deeply personal and political book, Wrong Readings is a must-read for scholars of South Asian public culture and politics.”


—Anjali Arondekar, University of California, Santa Cruz, USA

This book traces counter and anti-normative acts within a queerarchive of South Asian public culture. It critically analyses the ways in which norms, normativity, and ‘the normal’ are discursively and materially produced to shape gendered and sexual subjectivities. In seeking to make visible the functioning of normativity, this book queers normativity by querying that which appears as natural. Chapters engage with both the consolidation and the unsettling of normativity in South Asian canonical texts and figures such as Rabindranath Tagore, Hindi film Mother India, other popular literary and cinematic texts, advertisements, social media posts, and ubiquitous ephemera. Through these texts, the author unpacks the construct of canon, the nation, woman as a post-colonial subject, the home and the child, caste and marriage, same-sex sexuality and identity.

This book will be of interest to scholars and students studying and researching in Queer Studies, Gender and Sexuality Studies, South Asian Studies, Cultural Studies, Literary Studies, Film Studies, and Media Studies.


​J. Daniel Luther is the co-founder of the international platform and network called ‘Queer’ Asia. They have previously taught at the LSE, the University of Warwick, and SOAS. They are the co-editor of ‘Queer’ Asia: Decolonising and Reimagining Gender and Sexuality (2019).