Queering the Canon: LGBTQ+ Representation through Post-colonial and Postmodern Frameworks

Abstract

This paper explores the intersections of gender, sexuality, LGBTQ+ representation, post-colonialism, and postmodernism within contemporary literature and cultural discourse. Literature, as both a mirror and a critique of society, has increasingly served as a platform for marginalized voices, challenging normative constructions of identity and power. The research foregrounds how gender and sexuality are not fixed categories but rather socially constructed and historically contingent, shaped by the interplay of cultural, political, and linguistic forces. Within post-colonial frameworks, literary texts destabilize Eurocentric narratives by reclaiming subaltern voices, interrogating colonial legacies, and articulating hybrid identities. Simultaneously, postmodernist aesthetics disrupt grand narratives, foregrounding fragmentation, multiplicity, and the fluidity of meaning, thereby enabling new spaces for representing LGBTQ+ experiences and non-normative identities. By engaging with feminist theory, queer studies, and postcolonial criticism, this paper analyses select literary works that embody resistance, negotiation, and re-imagination of selfhood. The study highlights how narratives of gender and sexuality intersect with questions of race, class, nation, and diaspora, reflecting broader struggles for recognition and justice. Ultimately, this paper argues that the convergence of these discourses-post-colonialism, postmodernism, and LGBTQ+ representation-reshapes the literary landscape, offering critical insights into identity politics and cultural transformation in the twenty-first century.