Unhomeliness: Affective themes and Emotional landscapes in Revathi’s The Truth About Me: A Hijra Life Story

Jeshmitha D.¹, Thaniyasri P.²

¹II M. A., Department of English, Lady Doak Women’s College, Affiliated to Madurai Kamaraj University, Madurai.

²II M. A., Department of English, Lady Doak Women’s College, Affiliated to Madurai Kamaraj University, Madurai.

Abstract

Revathi’s The Truth About Me: A Hijra Life Story is a distinct memoir of the author’s life. This narrative reveals the journey of Revathi as a transgender woman, who struggles to be a part of school, village, and metropolitan city life. Her life is a statement of rejection and alienation. She experiences fear, anxiety, joy, shame, love, and finally gains resilience. This study applies, Homi K. Bhabha’s concept of‘Unhomeliness’ to indicate the lack of belongingness and her psychological torments. Whenever she expects kindness and equality from the society, she feels dejected. Analyzing the affective themes with different emotions proves that literature is an effective tool to pen her personal pains and transform it into assertions. The existing researches on the memoir focus on marginalization and queer studies but the concept of Unhomeliness reveals both her physical and emotional seclusion from the society. It explains how identity is established through emotional narratives.

Keywords: Unhomeliness, Belonging, Loneliness, Alienation, Dislocation.