ABSTRACT In this article we want to evoke two characters that each suggest different points of departure for thinking about Kolkata as a queer kind of space. By this we want to evoke something of the sexual geography and life-ways of the city, but to go beyond this standpoint too, to question ways in which ethnographic characters might be evoked in respect of any context, Kolkata or elsewhere. In one sense this is to open out a perception of Kolkata as a scene of many sexual life-worlds, inviting a plural kind of analysis suggestive of a multiplicity of perspectives; persons/subjects each with a unique viewpoint to be captured. The two characters we explore here each draw attention to issues of belonging and migration, of both wanting to move to and away from Kolkata; creating new life-worlds via the city amidst its shifting sexual geographies, class and caste divisions, and wider diasporic connections and fault-lines. Kolkata itself emerges as an attribute of the characterisations to hand: sometimes as distinct mise-en-scene, at others a kind of sensibility or resonance field for understanding self and others.

中文翻译：

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Joyraj 和 Debanuj：酷儿 (y)ing 城市

摘要在这篇文章中，我们想唤起两个角色，每个角色都暗示了将加尔各答视为一个奇怪的空间的不同出发点。通过这个，我们想唤起一些关于城市的性地理和生活方式的东西，但也超越这个立场，质疑在任何背景下，加尔各答或其他地方，民族志人物可能被唤起的方式。从某种意义上说，这是开启了一种将加尔各答视为许多性生活世界的场景的看法，邀请了一种暗示多种观点的多元分析；每个人/对象都有一个独特的观点被捕捉。我们在这里探讨的两个角色都引起人们对归属和迁移问题的关注，以及想要搬到和离开加尔各答的问题；在不断变化的性别地理环境中，通过城市创造新的生活世界，阶级和种姓划分，以及更广泛的侨民联系和断层线。加尔各答本身作为手部特征的一个属性出现：有时是独特的场景布置，有时是一种理解自我和他人的感性或共鸣场。