Unseen Suffering and Disrupted Bonds: Heterosexual Women in The Ode to Lata and The Two Krishnas

Abstract

Queer theory challenges normative frameworks of identity, desire, and kinship, centering the lived experiences and resistant agency of those marginalised by heteronormativity. Yet when queerness remains concealed, its effects extend beyond the queer subject. While queer narratives often privilege the voice of the closeted, less attention is paid to those who love them and bear the silent costs of secrecy. Concealed queer desire leaves emotional traces, ruptures, and residues in the lives it touches, and much discourse overlooks the affective consequences of such concealment or delayed revelation on those outside the queer position. Dhalla’s fictions address this gap, revealing how queer truths can devastate the very relationships that sustain them. His Ode to Lata and The Two Krishnas/The Exiles offer rare depictions of heterosexual women caught in the ripple effects of queer concealment. This paper examines the intersection of queer identity and heterosexual relationships in these novels through Lauren Berlant’s cruel optimism, Judith Butler’s theories of precariousness, recognisability, grievability, and the ethics of non-violence, and Jessica Benjamin’s psychoanalytic feminism. Close textual analysis shows how queer revelation and concealment destabilise the emotional worlds of normative characters, exposing their attachments to culturally sanctioned ideals that ultimately undermine their flourishing. Dhalla’s narratives depict “coming out’ as both a personal truth-telling and a catalyst for rupture, revealing fragile ethics of love, loyalty, and recognition, and underscoring the interdependence and shared vulnerability of queer and heterosexual lives.