Queer Diaspora Versus the
Heteronormative Nation: An Analysis of Deepa Mehta’s Movie
Funny Boy
Dr. Jeeja
Ganga
ABSTRACT
Diaspora indicates a state of
in-betweenness, liminality and of being neither here nor there. The
queer and the diasporic people resemble each other in that they are
‘outsiders’ in the heteronormative nation state. The paper probes
how the movie Funny Boy, directed by the Indo-Canadian diasporic
filmmaker, Deepa Mehta, subverts the widely accepted ideal of the
nation as a space of ethnic purity and heteronormativity. An
adaptation of a novel written by Shyam Selvadurai, a Srilankan gay
writer residing in Canada, the movie depicts the fortunes of Arjie
who belongs to a Tamil family residing in a racially-intolerant
Srilanka. The queer diasporic space that endorses racial and sexual
alterity enables the protagonist to triumph over the rigidity of the
heteronormative nation.
Keywords: Heteronormative Nation, Family, Diaspora Space, Queer,
Racism
