Resilience in the Face of Rejection: Exploring Transgender Struggles in I Am Vidya

Queer spaces in Indian literature have been subject to taboo and censorship. Queer literature represents LGBTQ people. The work I Am Vidya, written by Living Smile Vidya, uses the techniques of trauma narratives to bring out the sufferings of transgender people. Vidya, the protagonist, is a transgender woman who has experienced every humiliation inflicted on her based solely on her biological characteristics. She has gone through everything from being rejected by her family to living as a social outcast, begging on the streets, dressing like a woman, and undergoing surgery to shed her manhood. She underlines the pathetic condition of transgender people who are forced to do prostitution because they have no other means to live. They are also treated as marginalized. This paper focuses on the physical and emotional abuse of transgender people before they realize who they really are and highlights the fact that transgender people are humans and not humans alike.

Keywords: Transgender, Humiliation, Dignity, Struggles, Resilience