How the Queer Keep it Classy: Performing Heterosexuality in Shani Mootoo's Novel Valmiki's Daughter

Abstract

This article examines the construction of gender by the upper-middle-class Indo-Trinidadian community presented in Shani Mootoo's Valmiki's Daughter. Queer bodies, like Valmiki and Viveka, perform heterosexuality while they are coerced to survive within the Indo-Trinidadian heteronormative social structure. Although queer desire in this community cannot be made public, this article argues that it allows queer characters to evade the racial othering of non-Indian Caribbeans and the heteronormative structure of the Indo-Trinidadian society, which forces them to confront their colonial and indentured histories by constantly reminding them of their (dis)located diasporic self. Through their performances, queer bodies are able to subvert heteronormative social frameworks and to accommodate their queerness.