Top Qs
Timeline
Chat
Perspective

Ruth Vanita

Indian academic, activist and author From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Remove ads

Ruth Vanita is an Indian academic, activist and author who specialises[1] in British and Indian literary history with a focus on gender and sexuality studies. She also teaches and writes on Hindu philosophy.

Early life and education

Vanita earned her BA, MA and PhD in English at Delhi University.[2]

Career

From 1994 to 1997 Vanita was Reader in the Department of English at Delhi University.[1] She is now a professor of English and World Cultures at the University of Montana, where she directs the program in South & South-East Asian Studies.[3]

While living in Delhi in 1978, Vanita co-founded Manushi: A Journal about Women and Society, a journal that combined academic research and grassroots activism. She served as the journal's unpaid, volunteer co-editor from 1979 to 1991.[1]

Remove ads

Major publications

Books

  • 1994: A Play of Light: Selected Poems[4]
  • 1996: Sappho and the Virgin Mary: Same-Sex Love and the English Literary Imagination[5]
  • 2005: Love's Rite: Same-Sex Marriage in India and the West[6]
  • 2005: Gandhi's Tiger and Sita's Smile: Essays on Gender, Sexuality and Culture
  • 2012: Gender, Sex and the City: Urdu Rekhti Poetry in India 1780-1870[7]
  • 2017: Dancing with the Nation: Courtesans in Bombay Cinema[8]
  • 2020: Memory of Light (a novel)[9]
  • 2022: The Dharma of Justice: Debates on Gender Varna and Species[10]
  • 2023: The Broken Rainbow: Poems and Translations[11]
  • 2024: A Slight Angle (a novel)[12]

Edited volumes

  • 1991 (ed. with Madhu Kishwar): In Search of Answers: Indian Women's Voices from Manushi[13]
  • 2000 (ed. with Saleem Kidwai): Same-Sex love in India: Readings from Literature and History[14]
  • 2002 (ed.): Queering India: Same-Sex Love and Eroticism in Indian Culture and Society[15]
  • 2014 (ed.): India and the World: Postcolonialism, Translation and Indian Literature – Essays in Honour of Professor Harish Trivedi[16]

Translations

  • 1994: Yadav, Rajendra: Strangers on the Roof, translated by Ruth Vanita, Penguin India, 1994 (updated edition with a new introduction 2014)
  • 1997: Detha, Vijay Dan. Dilemma and Other Stories
  • 2003: Bhandari, Mannu: The Great Feast (Mahabhoj)
  • 2006: Sharma, Pandey Bechan ("Ugra"): Chocolate and Other Stories on Male-Male Desire[17]
  • 2007: About Me (Apni Khabar) (autobiography of Pande Bechan Sharma Ugra)
  • 2008: The Co-Wife and Other Stories by Premchand
  • 2013: Alone Together: Selected Stories of Mannu Bhandari, Rajee Seth and Archana Varma
  • 2021: My Family by Mahadevi Varma[18]

References

Loading related searches...

Wikiwand - on

Seamless Wikipedia browsing. On steroids.

Remove ads