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Explore every episode of the podcast Queer Lit

Dive into the complete episode list for Queer Lit. Each episode is cataloged with detailed descriptions, making it easy to find and explore specific topics. Keep track of all episodes from your favorite podcast and never miss a moment of insightful content.

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TitlePub. DateDuration
“Queering Desire” with Róisín Ryan-Flood and Amy Tooth Murphy15 Oct 202400:53:50
Femme theory, bisexual butches, racy footnotes – the brand-new edited collection Queering Desire has it all. The brilliant editors, Róisín Ryan-Flood and Amy Tooth Murphy, join me for a chat about  what the book means to them and how challenging and rewarding interdisciplinary research on lesbians and sapphics can be. They dive into the multi-faceted contributions and how they matter to queer culture today and also generously share their personal experience in collecting the many gems that make up Queering Desire. Follow @roisinryanflood and @queerlitpodcast on Instagram to learn more!

References:
Holding Hands: Experiences of shame, pride and protest among LGBT relationship partners
Centre for Intimate and Sexual Citizenship
https://www.essex.ac.uk/centres-and-institutes/intimate-and-sexual-citizenship
Notches
Esther Newton
Sally Munt
Anne Lister
Les Feinberg
Billie Eilish
Charli XCX
Eleanor Medhurst
Sarah Joy Ford
Susan Stryker
Rosalind Gill
Kimberley Mather
Mie Astrup Jensen
El. Reid-Buckley
Phoebe Kisubi Mbasalaki
Liz Millward
Marie Lou Duret
Prudence Bussey-Chamberlain #
Ken Plummer
Agnes
Ella Ben Hagai
Dominique Adams-Santos
Skala Eressos
Sappho
Sadie Lee
Libro Levi Bridgeman’s The Butch Monologues
Jack Halberstam’s Female Masculinities
Ladies of Llangollen
José Esteban Muñoz
K. Allison Hammer
Gay’s The Word
Esther Newton’s My Butch Career
Boots of Leather, Slippers of Gold
Patricia Highsmith’s Carol (The Price of Salt)
The Talented Mr Ripley
Andrew Scott Alfred
Hitchcock Strangers on a Train
Lillian Faderman’s Surpassing the Love of Men
Grace Ellis’ Flung out of Space  

Questions you should be able to respond to after listening:
  1.      The editors speak a lot about interdisciplinarity and their respective backgrounds in the humanities and in sociology. Which challenges and benefits of working across disciplines do they mention? Can you think of others?
  2.      Another important thread is queerness across different generations. How do you experience queer kinship across generations? What do you think the term ‘queer lineage’ might mean?
  3.      What might femme theory be? Please look up the term and see what you find.
  4.      What do the editors say about online and physical queer space?
  5.      Which essay of Queering Desire are you going to read first and why?  
“Queering French Fairy Tales” with Mélie Boltz Nasr01 Oct 202400:31:36
Get ready, queer language enthusiasts and trans literature francophiles! In another spontaneous recording from Lesvos, Mélie Boltz Nasr aka May tells us all about their genderbending fairy tale collection for adult readers. We also speak about feminist fonts, French grammar and how queering language is not just an activist aim but also a beautiful creative practice. To learn more about May, follow them on Instagram and check out @queerlitpodcast while you’re there.  

References:
Skala Eressos
Sappho
Contes D’Un Autre Bois
https://www.editions-ixe.fr/catalogue/contes-dun-autre-bois/
Charles Perrault
Grimm brothers
Walt Disney
Hassan Abdulrazzak’s Laila Pines For The Wolf
https://medium.com/@abdulrazzak/laila-pines-for-the-wolf-3710e81ebbd0
Éditions iXe
Bye Bye Binary
https://typotheque.genderfluid.space/fr
@bye.byebinary
BBB Baskervvol
Glyph
Alpheratz
Ursula Le Guin “Is Gender Necessary? Redux” 
https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/ursula-k-le-guin-is-gender-necessary-redux
Aesop
Lettre Aux Copaines 
https://lettre-aux-copaines.kessel.media/posts  

Questions you should be able to respond to after listening:
  1.      What might the political framework of your favourite fairy tale be?
  2.      Have you ever used an inclusive font? What do you think of this idea?
  3.      What is an example of feminist grammar in your native language?
  4.      Do you think nonbinary language is political? What is its place in creative practice?
  5.      If you were to invent a nonbinary font, what would it be called?    
“Narrating Palestine” with Nora Parr11 Jun 202400:41:31
Narratives can help us make sense of trauma – but what if these trauma narratives do not fit into preconceived structures of storytelling? Nora Parr joins me to speak about the role of narrative in trauma, in mental health and in understanding national, cultural and individual identity construction. Nora talks about how Palestinian literature forges its own narratives, why Palestinian literary history has so often been made invisible, and what genre conventions have to do with all of this.

Learn more about Nora’s work by following @noraehp on Instagram!

References:
Novel Palestine: Nation through the Works of Ibrahim Nasrallah (2023) by Nora Parr
Susan Lanser
Narrative Conference (ISSN)
https://www.thenarrativesociety.org/2024-conference-1
The Palestine Trauma Centre
https://www.palestinetraumacentre.uk/
Nakba
Road to Beersheva by Ethel Mannin (to see how some Arab critics received her work see this translation in the Journal of Arabic Literature https://doi.org/10.1163/1570064x-12341510)
Bab al-Shams (trans. as Gate of the Sun) by Elias Khoury
Children of the Ghetto series
https://rayaagency.org/book-author/khoury-elias/
Don’t Look Left: Diary of a Genocide by Atef Abu Saif, translated and published by Comma Press in Manchester
Ellipses (the first instance that really got Nora thinking is addressed in chapter 4 of the book Novel Palestine, page 77 has an image of the ellipses in question!) https://luminosoa.org/site/books/10.1525/luminos.168/read/?loc=001.xhtml
This article looks the problem of ‘eloquent silence’ from a different angle. 
https://archiv.ub.uni-marburg.de/ep/0003/2018/229/7792/
Minor Detail by Adania Shibli
J.M. Coetzee (writing on this is in a forthcoming chapter in Teaching Politically from Fordham Uni press, eds May Hawwas and Bruce Robbins)
https://www.gazapassages.com/
https://www.instagram.com/wizard_bisan1/
https://www.instagram.com/motaz_azaiza/
https://www.instagram.com/omarherzshow/
The Tale of a Wall by Nasser Abu Srour
Maya Abu Al-Hayat 
Memory of Forgetfulness by Mahmoud Darwish
Maria Sulimma
Trees for the Absentees by Ahlam Bsharat
Rights4Time
https://rights4time.com/nora-parr/

Questions you should be able to respond to after listening:
  1. Throughout the podcast, Nora mentions how genre and genre expectations (for YA literature, science fiction, and serial narratives, for example) impact how we perceive narratives. Do you have an example for this?
  2. What does Nora say about the temporal structure of trauma and storytelling?
  3. What might the study of narrative have to do with mental health?
  4. Which narratives can social media convey about everyday life in Gaza? Which examples does Nora give?
  5. How willing are you to engage with narratives that are uncomfortable?
“Trans Childhood” with Jules Gill-Peterson12 Oct 202100:53:10
Warning! This episode will turn you into a Jules Gill-Peterson (University of Pittsburgh) super fan -- if you are not one already. Jules talks about her research on the long and rich history of trans childhood, reflects on the construction of childhood (and its harmful implications) in Western Imperialist contexts and also shares some of her new work on DIY transitions. In addition to talking about some of her favourite children in the trans archives, Jules speaks about her own experience as a researcher and about the production of self-knowledge. Turns out: labels aren’t everything and they surely aren’t everything they’re made out to be.

Works and People mentioned:

Jules Gill Peterson’s Histories of the Transgender Child
“Dissociation as Trans Method II”
https://sadbrowngirl.substack.com/p/dissociation-as-trans-method-ii?justPublished=true
Joanne Meyerowitz
Susan Stryker
Rousseau’s Émile, or On Education
Magnus Hirschfeld
Kathryn Bond Stockton’s Making Out
Female Mimics
Leslie Feinberg’s Transgender Warriors (and Stonebutch Blues)

Find out more about the incredible Jules on her website (https://www.jgillpeterson.com/) or on Twitter (@gp_jls). Or, you know, find much less interesting content here (@Lena_Mattheis) on Instagram or Twitter.

Questions you should be able to respond to after listening:

1. Why does Jules think that the concept of childhood is potentially more revelatory to think about than a definition of transness? How do trans children subvert hierarchies established through Western ideas of childhood?
2. Why are children unknowable? What does ‘unknowable’ mean?
3. How is the idea of childhood and immaturity used in a colonial context or to justify incarceration?
4. What does Jules mean when she says that “we really overinflate the power of signs”?
5. Have you ever known something about yourself despite not having a word to describe it? Can you think of an example for this from queer literature?
6. How can our perspective as literary studies scholars help us reflect on the production of self-knowledge?
“Queer Cities“ with Davy Knittle28 Sep 202100:44:24
Start spreading the news! Dr Davy Knittle joins me for a chat about what queerness has to do with cities, why heteronormative architecture can make life difficult for queer people and queer kinship, how poets desire cityscapes, and what all of this has to do with compulsory able-bodiedness and racism. We also talk about our dogs and why we feel the local park can be a great gay space. My favourite bit? Davy reading from Eileen Myles. I think you should hit play now.

Texts and people mentioned:

Karen Tongson, Relocations: Queer Suburban Imaginaries (NYU Press, 2011)
Robert McRuer, “Compulsory Able-Bodiedness and Queer/Disabled Existence” in Disability Studies: Enabling the Humanities, edited by Sharon L. Snyder, Brenda Jo Brueggeman, and Rosemarie Garland-Thomson. Modern Language Association of America, 2002. 301-308.
George Chauncey, “Privacy Could Only Be Had in Public': Forging a Gay World in the Streets” in Gay New York, Basic Books, 1994. 179-205.
Julie Abraham, Metropolitan Lovers: The Homosexuality of Cities (University of Minnesota Press, 2009)
Trans Wellness Conference: www.transphl.org (@TransPHL)
Thomas Hobbes
Calvin & Hobbes
Eileen Myles, “Hot Night” in Not Me (Semiotext(e), 1991).
Richard Florida, Cities and the Creative Class, (Routledge, 2005).
Dionne Brand, What We All Long For (St. Martin’s Griffin, 2008).
Patjim Statovci, My Cat Yugoslavia, Translated by David Hackston (Pushkin Press, 2017)
Zeyn Joukhadar, The Thirty Names of Night (Simon and Schuster, 2020).
One of many studies on the racial wealth gap in the US: https://www.brookings.edu/blog/up-front/2020/02/27/examining-the-black-white-wealth-gap/

Want to paint the town queer? Why not check out more of Davy’s work here (https://davyknittle.squarespace.com/) and follow me on Instagram and Twitter (@Lena_Mattheis).

Also, Davy was way too humble to mention this but many moons ago he had a conversation with THE Eileen Myles and you can listen to it here: http://jacket2.org/podcasts/not-me-ness-eileen-myles-and-davy-knittle.

Questions you should be able to respond to after listening to this episode:

1. How does Davy define the term city? Can you think of different ways to define it?
2. Please give an example of heteronormative architecture or urban planning from your own life. How does this example affect queer living? How does it affect other marginalized people who do not identify as queer?
3. What is Richard Florida’s gay index? Why is it problematic?
4. What does Davy say about the relationship between literary and urban studies?
5. Can you think of an example of a queer text, film or series that depicts urbanity as central to queer life?
"Postcolonial Queerness" with Shamira Meghani14 Sep 202100:53:49
In this episode, Dr Shamira Meghani (Cambridge University) talks to me about queerness and caste, about how imperialism shapes gender, about why people associate Islam with unfreedom, and about how literature can help us understand more about all of these intersections. They also explain what sexual dissidence means and why a tabloid newspaper suggested that the university that started the first MA programme on sexuality in Britain needed to be ‘disinfected’… Fascinating stuff and lots to think about! Give it a listen!

Books, people and terms mentioned:

Centre for the Study of Sexual Dissidence (University of Sussex, founded in 1991)
Jonathan Dollimore’s Sexual Dissidence
Alan Sinfield
Anne McClintock’s Imperial Leather: Race, Gender, and Sexuality in the Colonial Contest
Rabindranath Tagore’s The Home and the World
Indian Penalty Code, 1860
The Criminal Law (Amendment) Bill, 2018
Hijra
Ruth Vanita and Saleem Kidwai’s Same-Sex Love in India: Readings in Indian Literature
Endogamy
B. R. Ambedkar
Bhramin
Dalit
Laws of Manu (Manu-smriti)
R. Raj Rao’s The Boyfriend
Salman Rushdie’s Satanic Verses
Ackley Bridge (Channel 4)
Akwaeke Emezi’s Freshwater
Ogbanje
Ben Okri’s The Famished Road
POSE
Mj Rodriguez

Oh, hi! Still reading? Then why not follow me on Instagram and Twitter (@Lena_Mattheis). See you there!

Questions you should be able to respond to after listening to this episode:

1. What is sexual dissidence?
2. How does imperialism relate to gender and sexuality?
3. What does queerness have to do with caste? What is caste?
4. Which non-binary genders are mentioned in this episode?
5. Why can it be problematic to think of other groups of people as unfree? Please try to think of further examples for this harmful ascription.
“Wildness, Masculinity and Swimming Pools” with Jack Halberstam31 Aug 202100:56:28
How do you get from wild theory all the way to wild swimming? By taking a deep dive with Prof Jack Halberstam (Columbia University) of course! Jack takes us where the wild things crawl and on the way, we discuss masculinities, the creative powers of failure, our difficult relationships to non-human animals, nudity and queer bodies, queerness, colonialism and capitalism, and, naturally, our favourite swimming pools. We also dip into some great queer texts, including but by no means limited to: gay falconry novels, animation films, eco-critical writing and non-binary theory.

Works by Jack mentioned:
The Wild Beyond: Music, Architecture and Anarchy (forthcoming)
Wild Things: The Disorder of Desire (Duke UP, 2020)
Trans*: A Quick and Quirky Account of Gender Variance (University of California Press, 2018)
“Unbuilding Gender: Trans* Anarchitectures In and Beyond the Work of Gordon Matta-Clark” (Places Journal, October 2018)
Gaga Feminism: Sex, Gender, and the End of Normal (Beacon Press, 2012)
The Queer Art of Failure (Duke UP, 2011)
Female Masculinity (Duke UP, 1998)

Other texts, people and concepts mentioned:
Pinky and the Brain
Paul Preciado’s potentia gaudendi (Testo Junky)
Jane Bennett’s vitality (Vibrant Matter)
Sigmund Freud’s Civilization and its Discontents
Helen MacDonald’s H is for Hawk
T.H. White’s The Goshawk (ferox)
T.H. White’s The Once and Future King
Glenway Wescott
Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s Le Petit Prince
J.A. Baker’s The Peregrin
Rachel Carson’s The Silent Spring
Donna Haraway’s A Cyborg Manifesto
Colin Dayan’s With Dogs at the Edge of Life
Gail Bederman
George Mosse
Freikörperkultur
Douglas Stuart’s Shuggie Bain
Jos Charles’ Feeld
Jordy Rosenberg’s Confessions of the Fox
Saidiya Hartman’s Wayward Lives, Beautiful Experiments

Want to flood your feed with more ferox content? Check out http://www.jackhalberstam.com/bio/ and follow us on Instagram (@jackhalberstam @Lena_Mattheis) and Twitter (@Odo86700462 @Lena_Mattheis).



Questions you should be able to respond to after listening to the podcast:

1. Where does Jack see the potential in reading animation through a queer lens?
2. What can masculinity be? What is it not?
3. How does (im)maturity relate to queerness and binary thinking?
4. In which ways does Jack see the relationship of humans to non-human animals as highly problematic? What are his thoughts on Donna Haraway?
5. From this episode, what do you think Jack’s definition of queerness would be?
6. Please write down a few sentences or key words on what ‘wildness’ is and try to think of a text that you think could be classified as wild.
"Disability and Queerness" with Chris Mounsey17 Aug 202100:49:09
In this episode, Prof Chris Mounsey (University of Winchester) takes us on a wild ride: from meeting French philosophers as an undergrad, to the other day when construction workers gave him admiring verbal feedback for his (awesome) tattoos. And guess what, both of these encounters have to do with queerness and disability, or variability – the term Chris prefers. We talk about everything from passing as able-bodied or straight to why sexually explicit novels are so important. Although in the episode, I was rudely unable to remember his name, we also talk about Ryan O’Connell and his Netflix series Special. Chris then shares some important insights on the ‘curative narrative’ and provides some steamy book recommendations. Give it a listen!

Scholars and Books mentioned:
Queer People Conference (with Caroline Gonda)
VariAbility Conference
Foucault’s History of Sexuality
Peculiar Bodies Book Series
Teresa Michals’s Lame Captains and Left-Handed Admirals: Amputee Officers in Nelson’s Navy
Peter Radford’s Women Athletes of Early Modern Britain (forthcoming)
Routledge Advances in the History of Bioethics Book Series
Van Rensselaer Potter’s definition of Bioethics
Jean-François Lyotard
Luce Irigaray’s Marine Lover of Friedrich Nietzsche (Amante Marine)
Jacques Derrida
David Hume
John Maxwell
Nicholas Saunderson
Edward Carpenter
Virginia Woolf
T.S. Eliot
Penelope Aubin’s The Life and Amorous Adventures of Lucinda (1721)
Priscilla Pointon
Thomas Gills
Ryan O’Connell’s Special
Rosemarie Garland Thomson, “A Habitable World: Harriet McBryde Johnson’s ‘Case for My Life.’” Hypatia: A Journal of Feminist Philosophy 30, no. 1 (Winter 2015): 300–306.
Peter Singer’s “Ethics and Disability”
John Rechy’s Numbers (1964) and City of Night (1963)

Chris’s work:
Sight Correction: Vision and Blindness in Eighteenth-Century Britain
The Idea of Disability in the 18th Century
Developments in the Histories of Sexualities: In Search of the Normal,1600-1800
(Ed. with Carolina Gonda) Queer People: Negotiations and Expressions of Homosexuality, 1700-1800

You want more, more, more? Why not check out Chris’s very own music at https://bearfffbear.bandcamp.com/ and follow me on Instagram and Twitter (@Lena_Mattheis).

Questions you should be able to respond to after listening:

1. At one point, Chris says that “variability enshrines uniqueness”. What does this mean? What is variability?
2. What are the three elements that Chris uses to describe variability?
3. What does Chris dislike about the term ‘disability’? What does that have to do with binary thinking?
4. How do queerness and variability intersect in Chris’ thinking?
5. What is the role of literature in studying queerness and variability?
"Bisexuality, Identity and Queer Families" with Lizzie Reed03 Aug 202100:48:28
Dr Elizabeth Reed (University of Southampton) is a cultural sociologist doing exciting research on bi-erasure, media representation and queer life-building. In this episode, Lizzie explains why bi relationships can be so difficult to describe, where we might need new language and where we might not, what and who queer families identify with and (most importantly) what soup dragons have to do with all of this. If that gets you curious, or if you’ve ever defined your identity using a wine metaphor, this one is for you.

Texts, Series and People mentioned:
Modern Family
The Fosters
Mae Martin’s Feel Good
Lewis, S. (2018). International Solidarity in reproductive justice: surrogacy and gender-inclusive polymaternalism. Gender, Place & Culture, 25(2), 207-227.
The Clangers
Becky Chambers’s Wayfarers Series
Schitt’s Creek
Brian K Vaughan and Fiona Staples’s graphic novel series Saga

Work by Lizzie mentioned:
Reed, E. (2020). Lesbian, bisexual and queer motherhood: crafting radical narratives and representing social change through cultural representations. In Imagining Motherhood in the Twenty-First Century Routledge.
Reed, E. (2018). The heterogeneity of family: responses to representational invisibility by LGBTQ parents. Journal of Family Issues, 39(18), 4204-4225. https://doi.org/10.1177/0192513X18810952
Hayfield, N., Campbell, C., & Reed, E. (2018). Misrecognition and managing marginalisation: Bisexual people’s experiences of bisexuality and relationships. Psychology & Sexuality, 9(3), 221-236.
Wood, R., Litherland, B., & Reed, E. (2020). Girls being Rey: ethical cultural consumption, families and popular feminism. Cultural Studies, 34(4), 546-566.

You want to build a queerer life? Start by following Lizzie (@ReedLizzie) and me (@Lena_Mattheis) on Twitter.

Questions you should be able to respond to after listening:

1. Which terms does Lizzie mention in addition to biphobia? How are they distinct?
2. What is queer methodology?
3. How does Lizzie study queer families and media representation?
4. In what form does Lizzie study Rey Skywalker and girlhood?
5. Why does Lizzie think queer families relate to cultural texts are not explicitly queer?
“Sappho, Cats and Pubic Hair” with Mara Gold20 Jul 202100:51:34
A delightful episode with Mara Gold (St Hilda’s College, Oxford), aka the Sapphic Scholar, who talks to me about Sappho (duh…), homosociality, queer college life in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, lesbian love letters and surprise pubic hair in the queer archives. Mara is a historian, knows her way around Ancient Greece and Egypt, she works on and in museums, and get this: she has even worked as an archaeologist in the field. Best of all, Mara brings a refreshing and entertaining Sapphic perspective to everything she does – including this here podcast. Please note that the sound quality isn’t great but it gets better throughout the episode. Apologies!

People, texts and places mentioned:
Sappho
V&A Museum
Pitt Rivers Museum
HD
Elizabeth Bishop
Katherine Mansfield
Michael Fields
Mary Barnard
Anne Carson (fragment 168b translation)
Eve Sedgewick Kossofsky
Henry Thornton Warton
Sharon Marcus. Between Women: Friendship, Desire, and Marriage in Victorian England. Princeton: Princeton Univ. Press, 2007.
If These Walls Could Talk 2

Need more Sappho on your socials? Follow Mara and me on Instagram and Twitter (@sapphic_scholar/@Lena_Mattheis).

Questions you should be able to respond to after listening:

1. What is homosociality?
2. Why does Mara study women‘s educational environment? How are colleges Sapphic?
3. Why does Sappho become so important at this particular point in time (end of 19th, beginning of 20th century)?
4. Which functions does Sappho serve in the queer community?
5. Could you comment on the reception history of Sappho’s work? What made this complicated?
"The Internet and Queer Literature" with Daniella Gáti06 Jul 202100:46:17
In this episode, Dr Daniella Gáti (Brandeis University) explains why the internet is queer, how gaming and the form of the vignette relate to queerness and why we should (or should not) watch Queer Eye. If you're intrigued by the notion of queerness as a a 'blob', give this a listen.

Scholars mentioned in this episode:
Whitney Pow
Bo Ruberg
Lee Edelman
Jack Halberstam
Sara Ahmed (“What’s the Use”, Feminist Killjoy Blog, @SaraNAhmed)
Jen Jack Gieseking (“A Queer New York”, “The Gender, Sexuality, & Space Reading List”, http://jgieseking.org/)
Judith Butler

Films, books, series, magazines and social media mentioned:
Qlit (https://qlit.hu/en/home/)
Autostraddle (https://www.autostraddle.com/)
Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie: “The Danger of a Single Story” (https://www.ted.com/talks/chimamanda_ngozi_adichie_the_danger_of_a_single_story?language=en)
@herstorycats
Anna Pulley: “The Lesbian Sex Haiku Book (with Cats!)”
Sarah Waters: “Affinity” and “Tipping the Velvet”
“Queer Eye”
JVN (@jvn, @curiouswithjvn)
Laverne Cox: “Free Cece”

Learn more about Daniella's work here: https://dgati.github.io/ and follow us on Twitter here: @gati_daniella and here: @Lena_Mattheis.

Questions you should be able to respond to after listening:

1. What is electronic literature?
2. What is a vignette?
3. What do you think Daniella means by “media-archeological approach”?
4. What does Daniella say about definitions of queerness?
5. How does queerness relate to fragmentation (in texts) and glitches (in games)?
6. When speaking about Whitney Pow’s work, Daniella explains that it is in the nature of archives to erase transness. Why do you think that could be? Can you think of an example?
"Queer Narratives" with Sue Lanser22 Jun 202100:43:56
Prof Susan Lanser (Brandeis University) joins me for this one – what an honour! Sue is one of the architects of narratology and has conducted groundbreaking research on queer women, lesbians and the Sapphic (among 500 other things and while being completely humble, charming and wonderful). In this episode, she provides insights on queerness in history, literature, culture and narrative form. She also talks about her research on Israeli-Palestinian narratives and, of course, about her brilliant book “The Sexuality of History”.

Texts, films and authors mentioned:
Gérard Genette
Valerie Traub
Shlomith Rimmon-Kenan
The Living Handbook of Narratology (Hamburg University)
Sami Adwan and Dan Bar-On’s “Side by Side: Parallel Histories of Israel-Palestine”
“Kiss Me Kosher”
Isaac de Benserade’s “Iphis and Ianthe” (1634, after Ovid)
Poetry of Katherine Phillips
Djuna Barnes’ “Ladies Almanack”
Ocean Vuong’s “On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous”

Sue’s scholarly work mentioned:
(with Shlomith Rimmon-Kenan) "Narratology at the Checkpoint: The Politics and Poetics of Entanglement." Narrative 27.3 (2019): 245-269.
"Queering Narrative Voice." Textual Practice 32.6 (2018): 923-937.
(with Shlomith Rimmon-Kenan) "Israeli–Palestinian narratives and the politics of form: reading Side by Side." European Journal of English Studies 20.3 (2016): 310-325.
"Gender and Narrative." Handbook of Narratology. De Gruyter, 2014. 206-218.
https://www.lhn.uni-hamburg.de/node/86.html
The Sexuality of History: Modernity and the Sapphic, 1565-1830. University of Chicago Press, 2014.
"Speaking in Tongues: Ladies Almanack and the Language of Celebration." Frontiers: A Journal of Women Studies (1979): 39-46.

Want to find out more about Queer Lit and who I will speak to next? Find me on Twitter (@Lena_Mattheis) or check out pictures of my home office pets on Instagram (lena_mattheis).

Questions you should be able to respond to after listening:

1. What is the relationship between Feminism and Queer Studies?
2. What does Sue think about the relationship of content and form in literature?
3. Is there such a thing as queer form?
4. According to Sue, which century is ‘the’ century of the word lesbian?
5. Why is it important to think, not just about the history of sexuality, but also about the sexuality of history?
6. Why is the year 1928 particularly significant in queer literature?
"Queer Screens" with Olu Jenzen08 Jun 202100:50:41
Dr Olu Jenzen (University of Brighton) joins me for this episode on queer screens: from the silver screen, to the small screen to the smartphone screen. We talk about queer film and series, visual activism, digital queer spaces and, guess what, we even talk about queer teeth. Olu does incredible work for and with young trans people, researches their use of social media and also shares her insights on lesbian doppelgangers and queer sensibility in contemporary film and series. Since I am not quite as eloquent as Olu, I mention “technomachismo” when we talk about gendered and racial data bias. As you may have guessed, I meant to say technochauvinism.

Olu’s research mentioned (a lot of it is open access):
The Aesthetics of Global Protest: Visual Culture and Communication (edited by Aidan McGarry, Itir Erhart, Hande Eslen-Ziya, Olu Jenzen, Umut Korkut)
“The symbol of social media in contemporary protest: Twitter and the Gezi Park movement” (Aidan McGarry, Itir Erhart, Hande Eslen-Ziya, Olu Jenzen, Umut Korkut)
“Trans youth and social media: moving between counterpublics and the wider web”
“Queer teeth: exploring traumatic health legacies”
“Revolting doubles: radical Narcissism and the trope of lesbian Doppelgangers”

Series mentioned:
Pose
Lena Waithe’s Twenties
Transparent
Gentleman Jack

Filmmakers mentioned:
Matthew Hellett
Campbell X
Oska Bright Film Festival (Queer Freedom, Love Bites)
https://oskabright.org/

Book mentioned:
Douglas Stuart’s Shuggie Bain

Questions you should be able to respond to after listening:

1. What is visual activism?
2. Why is the motif of the doppelganger relevant to queer studies? Can you think of an example of a doppelganger in literature or film?
3. What does Olu say about the connection between Otherness and queerness?
4. What does it mean to do participant-led research?
5. Why are online platforms biased? How does this affect queer life and, in particular, black trans people?
6. What does Olu mean by queer sensibility?
“Lesbian Fashion History” with Eleanor Medhurst28 May 202400:50:16
Did you know that lesbians sporting sportswear is a queer tradition dating back centuries? Or that 1910s Japanese lesbians liked to don a yukata to send subtle signals about their gender identity and sexual orientation? My favourite foremost expert in lesbian fashion history, Eleanor Medhurst, is gracing the podcast with a return performance, sharing her vast knowledge about all of these topics and more.

Listen now to learn all about how queer and gendernonconforming people dressed through the ages and follow @dressingdykes and @queerlitpodcast on Instagram to stay up-to-date and to book your tickets for Ellie’s book tour!  

References:
@dressingdykes
Unsuitable: A History of Lesbian Fashion
https://dressingdykes.com/
Lesbian Lives Conference
Anne Lister
Sarah Wingrove
Queen Christina of Sweden
Radclyffe Hall
The Well of Loneliness
Crufts
Female Husbands
Jen Manion
Sappho
Meiji Era
Seitō
Sexology
Hiratsuka Raichō
Otake Kōkichi
Yukata
Kimono
Queering Desire: Lesbians, Gender and Subjectivity
Amy Tooth Murphy
Alison Bechdel’s Fun Home
“Ring of Keys”
Roots Lesbian Fashion
Gillian Anderson
Cameron Esposito
Queery (podcast)
Lesbian Chique
k.d. lang
Vanity Fair
The L Word
The Queery (Brighton)
The Feminist Bookshop
Freya Marske’s The Last Binding Trilogy
Kristen Stewart
Happiest Season  

Questions you should be able to respond to after listening:
  1.      Can you name at least three historical fashion icons we speak about in the episode?
  2.      Eleanor explains why literature is important in fashion history. In which ways does Ellie use literary texts to learn about lesbian dress?
  3.      We use multiple words to describe the people whose fashion Eleanor writes about in Unsuitable. Why is that and what are some of the difficulties with labelling a historical figure?
  4.      Many of the people Ellie speaks about combine clothes with different gender connotations. Can you give an example of this? Do you think this is still relevant today?
  5.      Do you think lesbians are fashionable?
"Black Trans Narratives" with LaVelle Ridley25 May 202100:49:29
I get to chat with LaVelle Ridley (University of Michigan) about her doctoral research on black trans life narratives in this one and I must say, she’s a tonic. From important observations on the role of storytelling in political and community activism to the deeply personal process of healing that appropriate representation can initiate, LaVelle covers it all. She’s a scholar, an activist, a pisces (hell, yes!), a creative writer, a mermaid, and an absolute delight to talk to. Don’t miss this one; it’s fun!

Texts and people mentioned:
Paradise on the Margins: Lessons and Dreams from Trans Women of Color
https://www.paradiseonthemargins.com/
Atargatis
https://mermaidsuk.org.uk/
Susan Stryker
Maggie Nelson’s “The Argonauts”
Janet Mock’s “Redefining Realness” (2014) and “Surpassing Certainty” (2017)
CeCe McDonald
Toni Newman
Venus Di'Khadijah Selenite
Laverne Cox and Jac Gares’ “FREE Cece!”
Ridley, LaVelle. "Imagining Otherly: Performing Possible Black Trans Feminist Futures in Tangerine." TSQ: Transgender Studies Quarterly 6.4 (November 2019): 481-490.
LaKisha Simmons
“Tangerine”
Mya Taylor
Kiki Rodriguez
Mj Rodriguez
POSE
Kai Cheng Thom’s “Fierce Femmes and Notorious Liars”
Walt Whitman’s “Song of Myself”
https://lavelleridley.wixsite.com/mysite

Need more queer stuff on your socials? Follow LaVelle and me on Twitter (@lridley16/@Lena_Mattheis) and Instagram (academicfish/lena_mattheis).

Questions you should be able to respond to after listening:

1. What is life narrative? Can you think of an example for this from literature or film?
2. Where does LaVelle locate the role of storytelling and self narrating? How does it intersect with activism?
3. Which poet does LaVelle quote when she speaks about ‘containing multitudes’? Why is this poet relevant in this context?
4. Why is it productive to trouble genre distinctions? What is a genre?
5. Why does LaVelle find it important to be personal in her research? What does this mean to her?
"Queer Muslims" with Alberto Fernández Carbajal18 May 202100:46:28
Dr Alberto Fernández Carbajal (University of Roehampton) tells me all about their insightful book Queer Muslim Diasporas in Contemporary Literature and Film (2019) in this episode. We cover their favourite reads and learn what a Muslim perspective can teach us about queerness. This kind of research is all about changing perspectives and fostering understanding, so I do hope you will be understanding when it comes to the sound of Alberto’s beautiful scarf that I was unable to remove from the audio entirely…

Check out Alberto's book here:
https://manchesteruniversitypress.co.uk/9781526128102/

Scholars and concepts mentioned:
John McLeod’s Life Lines: Writing Transcultural Adoption
https://www.bloomsbury.com/uk/life-lines-writing-transcultural-adoption-9781472590404/
Lena Mattheis’s Translocality in Contemporary City Novels
https://www.palgrave.com/gp/book/9783030666866
James Procter’s Diaspora
Sara Ahmed’s Queer Phenomenology
Abraham B. Weil’s Trans*versality
Ibn al-'Arabi’s Imaginal

Novels and films mentioned:
Abdellah Taïa’s Salvation Army
Hanif Kureishi’s My Beautiful Laundrette/The Buddha of Suburbia
Ian Iqbal Rashid‘s A Touch of Pink
Ferzan Özpetek's Hamam’s The Turkish Bath (Steam in the US)
Shamim Sarif's I Can't Think Straight
Sally El Hosaini's My Brother the Devil
Rolla Selbak's Three Veils
Rabih Alameddine: Koolaids/The Hakawati
Randa Jarrar's A Map of Home
Maggie Nelson’s The Argonauts
Audrey Lorde’s Zami: A New Spelling of My Name

Guess what? Alberto is on Twitter (@AlbyFCarbajal), as am I (@Lena_Mattheis).

Questions you should be able to respond to after listening:
1. Why is it important to think postcolonial and queer perspectives together?
2. What does ‘diaspora’ mean and why is it central to Alberto’s research?
3. What does intersectionality mean here?
4. What is the white saviour?
5. What does Alberto say about Muslim storytelling?
"Lesbian* Modernists" with Diana Souhami04 May 202100:43:03
In this episode, Diana Souhami explains how Modernism was fundamentally shaped by lesbians* and queer people. We talk about how Sylvia Beach published Joyce’s "Ulysses" when no publisher would touch it, how Bryher financed penniless artists who then became the crème de la crème of Modernism, how H.D. arguably wrote better imagist poetry than Pound, and which lesbian love affairs resulted in the most enticing scandals. Diana, who I may or may not have heard being referred to as Lesbian Royalty, has written an entire book about this: "No Modernism without Lesbians" (2020). From Paris salons of the early 20th century to fighting the patriarchy in the history books and syllabi of the 21st century, Diana covers it all.

Authors and books mentioned:
Radclyffe Hall’s The Well of Loneliness
Sappho
Natalie Barney
Getrude Stein
Bryher
H.D.
Sylvia Beach
James Joyce’s Ulysses
T.S. Eliot’s The Wasteland
Ezra Pound
F. Scott Fitzgerald
Ernest Hemingway
Virginia Woolf’s Orlando
Vita Sackville-West
Violet Trefusis’ Broderie Anglaise
Oscar Wilde
Dolly Wilde
Janet Flanner

Publishers mentioned:
Contact Editions
Shakespeare and Company

Visual artists mentioned:
Picasso
Matisse
Cezanne
The Fauves

Diana Souhami’s books mentioned:
Gluck, 1895-1978: Her Autobiography
No Modernism Without Lesbians
Alice and Gertrude
Mrs Keppel and Her Daughter


Find out more about Diana here: https://dianasouhami.com/

If you’re looking for more lesbian content, follow @DianaSouhami on Twitter and check out @Lena_Mattheis as well.

“Silence is the biggest enemy of women* and lesbian women*. […] If you don’t exist, you can’t be any trouble.” (Diana Souhami in this episode)

Questions you should be able to respond to after listening:

1. Why were people such as Natalie Barney so inspired by Sappho? Why go back all the way to Ancient Greek poetry?
2. Why was Radclyffe Hall’s The Well of Loneliness banned?
3. Why, according to Diana, would Modernism not have happened without lesbians*?
4. Why was Sylvia Beach “intrinsic to Modernism”?
5. What is a lavender marriage?
6. Which Paris salons were important for queer women and Modernist artists and why?
"Pronouns" with Ashley Thornton08 Apr 202100:39:46
In this episode, I am talking to Ashley Thornton (Brighton University) about epicene pronouns and gender-inclusive language. Ashley is a corpus linguist working on singular they in English, Spanish and Russian and has some insights on the history of gender-neutral pronouns as well. The scholars (and Twitter accounts) referenced in this episode are:

Olu Jenzen @DrOluJenzen
Charlotte Stormbom
Laura Hekanaho @LHekanaho
Joshua Paiz (their account's private) @JMPaiz_PhD
Kris Knisley @krisknisely
Kirby Conrod @kirbyconrod
Dennis Baron @DrGrammar
Ute Gabriel and Pascal Gygax

And while you're at it, follow Ashley (@AR_Thornton) and Lena (@Lena_Mattheis) as well or check out @queerlitpodcast on Instagram!

Questions you should be able to respond to after listening:
1. What are epicene pronouns? How are they used?
2. What are neopronouns?
3. Is using singular they a recent trend?
4. How does Ashley research the use of singular they? In which languages and contexts?
5. How does research in corpus linguistics work?
6. Why is singular they important for the queer community?
"Queer Kings and Trans Histories" with Kit Heyam07 Apr 202100:52:13
In this episode, Dr Kit Heyam (Northumbria University) shares wonderful tidbits from trans and non-binary histories, talks about their book on queer king Edward II and is generally delightful and clever. Kit also talks about how they approach queering history, the intersections of literary studies and historical research and their favourite contemporary queer reads, such as "The Lauras" by Sara Taylor, "My Autobiography of Carson McCullers" by Jenn Shapland or "The Left Hand of Darkness" by Ursula K. Le Guin.

Other texts we talk about:
"Edward II" by Christopher Marlowe
"The Reputation of Edward II, 1305-1697: A Literary Transformation of History" by Kit Heyam
(https://www.aup.nl/en/book/9789463729338/the-reputation-of-edward-ii-1305-1697)
"The Roaring Girl" by Thomas Middleton and Thomas Dekker
Marjorie Rubright' article "Transgender Capacity in Thomas Dekker and Thomas Middleton's The Roaring Girl (1611)', Journal for Early Modern Cultural Studies 19.4 (2019), 45-74
"Trumpet" by Jackie Kay
"Middlesex" by Jeffrey Eugenides
"Girl, Woman, Other" by Bernardine Evaristo
"Little Fish" by Casey Plett

Why not follow Kit (@krheyam) and Lena (@Lena_Mattheis) on Twitter and read more about Kit's work as a scholar and activist here: https://kitheyam.com/.

Questions you should be able to respond to after listening:
1. How do the study of literature and of history intersect in Kit’s work?
2. Why is it difficult to label historical figures as trans, lesbian or gay? What does Kit do instead?
3. What does Kit say about authorship and contemporary queer literature?
4. The central aim of Kit’s work is to show that transness and queerness are not ‘new’. Why do you think this is important?
Queer Lit Trailer01 Apr 202100:00:39
100 Episodes!21 May 202400:24:42
Can you believe this is our 100th episode? Listen now to hear about some listeners’ favourite episodes, about future plans for the podcast and about how the cats are feeling these days.  

References:
https://ko-fi.com/queerlit
Karen Tongson
Normporn
Susan Stryker
Cate Sandilands
Kew Gardens
Elizabeth Freeman
Diane Watt
Briona Simone Jones
Yesterqueer’s Holigays
Out and Wild
https://www.outandwild.co.uk/ 
Alison Bechdel
Alex Iantaffi
Kai Cheng Thom
Sara Ahmed
Alexis Pauline Gumbs
Mo Moulton
Alberto Poza  

Questions I still have:
  1.      What can I do to make my listeners even happier?
  2.      Who are all these awesome people that spend their time with me and my guests?
  3.      Will I really make another 100 episodes?
  4.      When will Rufus take over as podcast host?
“Normporn and Queer Imaginaries” with Karen Tongson14 May 202400:54:15
What could be more soothing than escaping your beautiful but complex queer life by watching a bunch of straight people remodel their suburban home in a new shade of beige? Karen Tongson joins me to explain why mainstream television can be so comforting and why admitting to having watched Gilmore Girls for the fourth time can feel a bit like sharing your browser history… In this curious entanglement of norms, shame, and self-soothing, Karen also shares insights into the shifting views of what is normal and what this means for queer life – televisually as well as geographically and sociopolitically.

Listen now to hear Karen speak about “surrendering to the spontaneous overflow of basic feelings” and don’t forget to follow Karen on Instagram @tongsonator to keep up to date with her work.  

References:
Karen Tongson’s Normporn: Queer Viewers and the TV That Soothes Us (2023)
Karen Tongson’s Relocations: Queer Suburban Imaginaries (2011)
Karen Tongson’s Why Karen Carpenter Matters (2021)
Karen Tongson’s Empty Orchestra (forthcoming)
The Ultimatum
Thirtysomething
Parenthood
True Blood
Gilmore Girls
José Esteban Muñoz
Catherine Zimmer
Hannah Gadsby’s Nanette
The Phantom of the Opera
Michael Crawford
Sailor Moon
Tuxedo Mask
Gestalt
The Traitors
Alan Cumming
@tongsonator
Karentongson.org  

Questions you should be able to respond to after listening:
  1.      Can you define ‘normporn’ and give an example of what might be a typical normporn show?
  2.      What is the ‘porn’ in ‘normporn’? How does shame play into watching mainstream TV as queer escapism?
  3.      What role does grief play in relation to normporn?
  4.      Karen talks about discussions of normalcy as a throughline for all three of her currently published books. Which type of ‘normal’ does each monograph discuss?
  5.      Which show do you find particularly soothing and why?
“Trans in Translation” with Alberto Poza30 Apr 202400:17:52
Have you read the iconic Taiwanese novel The Membranes by Chi Ta-Wei? If so, in which language? Alberto has crafted the fabulous Spanish translation of this beautifully genderweird text and joins me to speak about the opportunities and challenges the highly gendered structures of Spanish offer for this. If you have ever wondered which pronoun or gendered inflection to use for a cyborg and what language might best describe a trans machine, this is the episode for you.

Learn more about Alberto’s work on Instagram @aiweip or on Twitter (@Albertop_p) and consider giving @queerlitpodcast a follow as well.  

References:
Queer and Trans Philologies
Diane Watt  
Chi Ta-Wei’s The Membranes
Ari Larissa Heinrichs
Queer Ecologies and Environmental Writing (module)
https://lenamattheis.files.wordpress.com/2023/12/module-handbook-queer-ecologies.pdf
Kazuo Ishiguro’s Klara and the Sun
Jack Halberstam
Paul Preciado
Alana Portero’s Bad Habit (La Mala Costumbre, 2023)  

Questions you should be able to respond to after listening:
  1.      Have you ever read a queer text in different languages? Do you experience gender differently depending on language?
  2.      Why do we gender some machines and not others?
  3.      Alberto comments on how Anglophone readers tend to focus on the trans elements of The Membranes. Why do you think they stand out to Anglophone readers?
  4.      Alberto comments of generic masculine, generic feminine and genderneutral forms in Spanish. How do you think translations into other languages have dealt with this dilemma and how would you translate this?
  5.      If you could speak any language fluently, which one would you choose and why?      
“Knight as a Gender” with Mabel Mundy16 Apr 202400:14:43
If you could pick a gender, any gender, which one would that be, and why would it 1000% be knight? In this special minisode, I get to answer that question with Mabel Mundy, who shares fascinating insights into the genderfuckery of chivalric romance and crossdressing knights. Tune in now, to learn more about why gender ambiguity clearly is, and has always been, super hot, and how this plays out in Edmund Spenser and Philip Sidney’s writing.

If you too are picturing Brienne of Tarth at the bathhouse when hearing about Britomart, follow @queerlitpodcast on Instagram and let me know in the comments. To learn more about Mabel’s work, follow her on Twitter at @mabelcjmundy.

A big, big thank you to the brilliant team of Queer and Trans Philologies at Cambridge University for creating this space!

References:

Petition: https://www.change.org/p/support-our-surrey-campaign?

This is not an isolated issue! See this list of current large-scale UK HE redundancies: https://qmucu.org/qmul-transformation/uk-he-shrinking/

https://www.crassh.cam.ac.uk/events/39800/#call-for-papers
Queer and Trans Philologies
University of Cambridge
CRASSH @crasshlive (Instagram)
Crossdressing
Genderfuckery
Edmund Spenser’s The Faerie Queene
Sir Philip Sidney’s Arcadia
Margaret Cavendish’s The Covenant of Pleasure
Chivalric Romance
Britomart
Malecasta
Bradamante
Ludovico Ariosto’s Orlando Furioso
Diane Watt
The Redcrosse Knight
Una

Questions you should be able to respond to after listening:
  1. What forms of genderfuckery does Mabel talk about? If you are not familiar with the term, please look it up and/or check out the Queer Lit episode with Nick Cherryman.
  2. Why is Mabel particularly interested in doing research on chivalric romances?
  3. Mabel comments on how crossdressing knights can reveal something about the social category of gender that is possibly more important than their individual gender. Would you agree with that? Why or why not?
  4. Do you have a favourite knight?
“Gendered Bodies and Narrative Form” with Chiara Pellegrini02 Apr 202400:45:15
How does a queer, trans or intersex body take shape in a narrative? Dr Chiara Pellegrini is here to help us better understand how narrative form, point of view, and embodiment interact in contemporary storytelling – whether that be in novels, short stories or reality TV. We speak about problematic narrative tropes of trans narration, such as the ‘gender reveal’, but also about how some narrative voices protect their characters from voyeuristic intrusions. I’m also absolutely fascinated by Chiara’s take on Barbie.

Don’t delay, listen today! To learn more about Chiara’s work, follow her on Twitter @chiarapg4 and, while you’re at it, stay in touch with the podcast on Instagram @queerlitpodcast.    

References: 

Pellegrini, Chiara. Trans Narrators: First-Person Form and the Gendered Body in Contemporary Literature. Edinburgh University Press, 2025.

Gillis, Stacy and Chiara Pellegrini (eds.) The Cultural Politics of Greta Gerwig’s Barbie. Special Issue of Feminist Theory 25.4 (2024).

Mejeur, Cody and Chiara Pellegrini (eds.) Trans/forming Narrative Studies. Special Issue of Narrative 32.2 (2024).

Pellegrini, Chiara. ‘Anticipating the Plot: Overdetermining Heteronormative Destiny on the Twenty-First- Century Screen’, Textual Practice (2022): 1-23.

Pellegrini, Chiara. ‘“Declining to Describe”: Intersex Narrators and Textual Visibility’. Interdisciplinary and Global Perspectives on Intersex. Ed. Megan Walker (Palgrave, 2022): 49-64.

ISSN International Society for the Study of Narrative

https://www.thenarrativesociety.org/2024-conference-1

Narrative for Social Justice

https://www.thenarrativesociety.org/n4sj

Jay Prosser’s Second Skins

Travis Alabanza’s None of the Above

Calvin Gimpelevic’s Invasions: Stories

Susan Lanser “Queering Narrative Voice” Textual Practice 32.6 (2018)

Sara Taylor’s The Lauras

Jordy Rosenberg’s Confessions of the Fox

Jeffrey Eugenides’ Middlesex

Marquis Bey’s Black Trans Feminism

Hida Viloria - Born Both: An Intersex Life (Hachette 2017)

Hannah Gadsby’s The Gender Agenda

Dahlia Belle (the comic Lena mentions)

Cody Mejeur

Casey Plett and Cat Fitzpatrick’s Meanwhile, Elsewhere

The Ultimatum

Questions you should be able to respond to after listening:
  1.     How might narrative point of view affect trans and intersex narratives? Why do you think the first person has been a particularly popular point of view in trans texts?
  2.      What does ‘embodiment’ mean when it comes to narration?
  3.      Chiara suggests that narratology (the study of how we tell stories) can learn a lot from trans narrative forms. What, for example, can we learn from a trans perspective?
  4.      We speak about problematic narratives that conceal trans or queer bodies, only to reveal them to readers or viewers later on. Can you think of an example for this type of narrative? Why would this be harmful?
  5.      How do you feel about some of the recent queer reality TV shows?    
Humanities under Threat19 Mar 202400:27:15

https://surrey-ucu.org.uk/category/news/

https://www.instagram.com/supportsurreysll/?hl=en

https://www.change.org/p/support-our-surrey-campaign?

This is not an isolated issue! See this list of current large-scale UK HE redundancies:

https://qmucu.org/qmul-transformation/uk-he-shrinking/


IG: @supportsurreysll

Twitter/x: @SaveSurreySLL

https://universityenglish.ac.uk/englishcreates/#:~:text=EnglishCreates%20is%20a%20campaign%20to,literature%2C%20language%20and%20creative%20writing

@queerlitpodcast
queerlitpodcast@gmail.com
“Feeling Bad” with Hil Malatino05 Mar 202400:50:13
Despite the title, this episode contains a generous amount of laughter, because it is just that enjoyable to talk to Hil Malatino, brilliant author of Side Affects: On Being Trans and Feeling Bad (2022). Hil has published groundbreaking work on trans and intersex stories and histories and, in this most recent monograph, draws our attention to the complexities of trans affect. In order to explore emotions such as numbness, fatigue, envy and rage, Hil consults literary texts as well as performance art, so of course I make Hil talk about my new favourite performance art obsession Cassils, alongside Casey Plett and Kai Cheng Thom. Tune in now to learn about all of these fascinating people, about human dolphin communication, about the manifold uses of ketamine, and about Xena and Subaru.

Find Hil on Instagram @gay_vague and everywhere else @HilMalatino and follow the podcast @queerlitpodcast on Instagram.

References:
Hil Malatino’s Side Affects: On Being Trans and Feeling Bad (UP Minnesota, 2022)
Hil Malatino’s Trans Care (2020)
Hil Malatino’s Queer Embodiment (2019)
Katy Steinmetz “The Transgender Tipping Point” (2014)
https://time.com/135480/transgender-tipping-point/
Casey Plett
CeCe McDonald
Cassils’ ‘Monument Push’ and ‘Becoming an Image’
Sandra Harding’s strong objectivity
Autotheory
Kai Cheng Thom’s Fierce Femmes and Notorious Liars
Paul Preciado
Susan Stryker
Marina Abramovic Institute
Tiresias
Sam Tenorio
Reed Erickson
The Human Potential Movement
Isaac Fellman’s Dead Collections
Sarah Schulman’s Girls, Visions and Everything
Dorothy Allison’s Two or Three Things I Know for Sure Bastard Out Of Carolina
Mo Moulton
Xena: Warrior Princess
WGS South
https://wgssouth.org/

Questions you should be able to respond to after listening:
  1. Which types of affects does Hil write about in Side Affects? What role do they play in trans storytelling?
  2. Can you list the bad feelings that Hil discusses in the book? Hint: You can also look at the table of contents online.
  3. How does Hil describe the method of Side Affects, in terms of selecting and discussing texts?
  4. Why does Hil find ‘triumphant’ narratives about trans lives problematic? Can you think of an example of such a narrative?
  5. Hil speaks about positionality in academic writing. How do you feel about this? Do you write about yourself in your work?
“Hijab Butch Blues” with Lamya H.20 Feb 202400:39:03
How often do you get to chat with the author of your major literary obsession and learn something about queer storytelling at the same time? I cannot believe I actually got to sit down with @lamyaisangry to talk about their brilliant novel Hijab Butch Blues, their essay writing and the queer future, which, according to Lamya, will be weird AF. Listen now, to hear about queer readings of the Quran, gender expression at the gym, new coming out narratives, and Lamya’s queer writing ancestors. Not to be missed!

References:

Lamya H. “A Fragile Dance: Queer Brown Futures (Or Lack Thereof).” Autostraddle, 23 April 2015.
https://www.autostraddle.com/a-fragile-dance-queer-brown-futures-or-lack-thereof-284789/
Leslie Feinberg’s Stone Butch Blues
Audre Lorde’s Sister Outsider
Zami
"A Litany for Survival"
Dionne Brand’s What We All Long For
Dorothy Allison’s Bastard Out of Carolina
Cavedweller
Stone Wall Award
American Library Association
https://www.lamyah.com/

Questions you should be able to respond to after listening:
  1. Lamya writes in a very interesting form of memoir. What makes the structure of their novel unique?
  2. What does Lamya think about coming out narratives and how they are changing in contemporary literature?
  3. Who does Lamya name as her queer ancestors? Please look up at least one of them to find out a little more about their life and work.
  4. What does Lamya say about the queer future? What do you think the queer future, or the future of queer narratives, will look like?
“Lifting Off in Lesvos” with Karen McLeod24 Sep 202400:22:26
Guess who I ran into on the beautiful island of Lesvos: Karen McLeod, author of the amazing memoir Lifting Off. Karen sat down with me at Ohana Saloon, a queer-owned beach bar in Skala Eressos, and told me about her performance art, about working as aircrew as a queer woman, experiences with addiction, and about a new Lesvos-related book she is just starting to write…

Warning for the noise-sensitive: you will be able to hear the ocean, the wind, and the many, many lesbians.


Learn more about Karen’s work on Instagram @therealkarenmcleod and see @queerlitpodcast for our newest episodes.  

References: 
Out and Wild
Barbara Brownskirt
Lifting Off
In Search of a Missing Eyelash
Muswell Press
The Bookseller Crow
Cindy Sherman
Section 28
Polari
Shirley Valentine
The Short Tall Letter 
https://karenmcleod.substack.com/
Julia Darling’s Crocodile Soup
Jackie Kay
Stella Duffy  

Questions you should be able to respond to after listening:
  1.      We are recording in Skala Eressos, which has a close connection to Lesbian poet Sappho. Why not take a moment to read more about Sappho right now?
  2.      Karen begins by speaking about her experience of not being able to be out at work. Do you ever have to hide parts of yourself, based on where you are and who you interact with?
  3.      Karen briefly mentions Section 28. If you are not familiar, please look up what this term means in the context of the United Kingdom and homophobic legislation.
  4.      Karen and I speak about how amazing intergenerational queer spaces are. Do you share that experience? Why do you think different age groups can learn from one another, especially in an LGBTQIA2S+ context?
“Nonbinary History and Queer Kinship” with Mo Moulton06 Feb 202400:45:23
This episode is all about both/and: both trans and queer history, both kinship and relationships, both the past and the present. Mo Moulton, our illustrious guest this fortnight, is an expert in all of them. Mo is a historian of community, who is particularly interested in nonbinary methods to approach gender nonconforming figures of the past. In this episode, Mo talks about a queer and trans desire for kinship with the past, about chosen families, and (my favorite bit) about dogs and the trans experience. If I were you, I would listen right now and follow @queerlitpodcast and @movin_on_out on IG.

References:

Moulton, Mo. Mutual Admiration Society: How Dorothy L. Sayers and Her Oxford Circle Remade the World for Women . Hachette UK, 2019.

Moulton, Mo. ““Both Your Sexes”: A Non-Binary Approach to Gender History, Trans Studies and the Making of the Self in Modern Britain.” History Workshop Journal 95 (Spring 2023)

Moulton, Mo. “Dogs in the Picture: Restoring the Queer History of the Irish Family.” History of the Family (forthcoming 2024)

Getting Curious

Harlan Weaver, Bad Dog: Pit Bull Politics and Multispecies Justice (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2021)

“Queer Pets” with Sarah Parker and Hannah Roche

https://www.spreaker. com/episode/queer-pets-with-sarah-parker-and-hannah-roche--47535404

Dorothy Stokes

Jules Gill-Peterson

C. Riley Snorton

Hil Malatino

Dorothy L. Sayers

Muriel St Clare Byrne

Edward Carpenter's The Intermediate Sex

Urning

Deadloch

Questions you should be able to respond to after listening:

1. What constitutes a nonbinary approach to history?
2. Which three scholars does Mo refer to when they talk about beginning their research on the history of gender?
3. Mo explains that historians often apply the category of gender while speaking about the past while, at the same time, being very careful about not anachronistically using terms such as lesbian or trans. What does Mo think about this? Do you agree?
4. We use two terms that you may or may not be familiar with: 'rainbow washing' and the 'pink pound.' Please look them up and think about whether you have ever encountered an example of one of them.
5. What does Mo say about the perception of radical or transgressive identities? Do you agree? What are your thoughts on this?
“The Shape of Sex” with Leah DeVun23 Jan 202400:41:15
Nonbinary Jesus. Did that get your attention? If so, this episode is for you. Historian extraordinaire Leah DeVun joins me to talk about the pre-modern history of nonbinary gender, about intersex brides, transitioning saints and what terms such as androgyne and hermaphrodite might tell us about conceptions of sex, gender and sexuality. Leah explains how thinking about nonbinary gender was and is a way of interrogating what it means to be human.

Join us for this journey into nonbinary history and religion and, if you just can’t get enough, follow @ldevun (IG), @DevunLeah (Twitter) and @queerlitpodcast on Instagram.

References:

The Shape of Sex: Nonbinary Gender from Genesis to Renaissance (Columbia UP, 2021)
TSQ special issue: Trans*historicities, co-edited by Leah DeVun and Zeb Tortorici (2018)
Resemblance (2022-)
https://www.leahdevun.com/resemblance
Lamya H.’s Hijab Butch Blues
Gladstone’s Library
Trans/Formations (SCM Press, 2009)
Androgyne
Hermaphrodite
Judith Butler’s Who’s Afraid of Gender
Eleanor Rykener
Rolandina Ronchaia
Berengaria Castelló of Castelló d'Empúries
Joseph of Schönau
Genesis P-Orridge
Throbbing Gristle
Psychic TV

Questions you should be able to respond to after listening:
  1. How does Leah define the term nonbinary? How is this similar to or different from other definitions you have come across?
  2. Leah explains that thinking about nonbinary gender has an impact on categories other than gender. What does this imply and what would be examples?
  3. Why does Leah say that focusing on a nonconforming individual should not be the only way to write nonbinary history?
  4. Leah explains that when we learn about nonbinary people of the past, we usually meet them on the worst day of their life. What does this mean and how should this influence the way in which we read source texts?
  5. Please look up one of the people Leah mentions in the episode and learn a little more about them.
“Trans Future Fiction” with Kit Schuster09 Jan 202400:39:26
How can we imagine a trans future? Kit Schuster joins me to talk about how transgression in fiction can help us think new futures. We speak about trans, nonbinary and gendernonconforming characters, norms and settings in science fiction, but Kit also stresses that their definition of trans is not limited to gender. Instead, Kit invites us to have our queer minds blown in all kinds of ways by future fictions but also by Gothic and horror texts. Apologies for the audio quality! Sometimes, a podcaster needs to improvise…

If you enjoyed this episode, why not follow @officialkitschuster and @queerlitpodcast on Instagram, where you can also learn more about all the great stuff Freiburg University is doing: @engsemfreiburg and @fs.anglistik.freiburg.

References:
“From Gothic Heroines to Monstrous Prom Queens: Gender Horror in Dracula and Jennifer’s Body,” Rethinking Gothic Transgressions of Gender and Sexuality New Directions in Gothic Studies. ed. Sarah Faber and Kerstin-Anja Münderlein. Routledge, 2024.
Queer Second Cities
https://queersecondcities.wordpress.com/
Queer Perseverance
https://www.anglistik.uni-freiburg.de/events/topicweeks
Jennifer’s Body
Dracula
Rivers Solomon’s An Unkindness of Ghosts
Afrofuturism
Generationship
Posthumanism
Frankenstein
Susan Stryker
Torey Peters’ Detransition, Baby!
Cael Keegan
Julian K. Jarboe’s Everyone on the Moon is Essential Personnel and “I AM A BEAUTIFUL BUG!”
The Murderbot Diaries
Amal El-Mohtar’s How To Lose The Time War
“One-Sided Relationships with Elaine Auyoung” How to Read Podcast
Homo Sapiens
Chappel Roan’s The Rise and Fall of a Midwest Princess and “Red Wine Supernova”

Questions you should be able to respond to after listening:
  1. What is Kit’s definition of ‘trans’? Can you think of a different one or do you have your own?
  2. What does Kit think we can learn from trans future fictions? Do you agree?
  3. When talking about the future, Kit says that “the past and the future are the same country”. What do you think they mean here?
  4. What does Kit say about the collaborative nature of knowledge production in academia? Who inspires you to come up with new ideas?
  5. Have you read a text that you think could qualify as trans future fiction?
The queerest thing you did in 2023: Part Two26 Dec 202300:24:25
The queerest thing you did in 2023: Part Two
Are you ready for 2024? I absolutely am not but to prepare for another queer year, I listen to more of your voice notes and I give you what you probably have not been waiting for: the queerest thing I did this year.

References:
ListenQueer
https://listenqueer.wordpress.com/
Kit Schuster
Jack Jen Gieseking
American Studies Meeting
Lindsey Freeman
Trans Community Run
Mr Samo
London LGBTQ+ Community Centre
Clea DuVall
Tugce Kayaal
Heather Love
Justin Torres’ Blackouts
Whitechapel Gallery
Nicole Eisenman
Susan Stryker

Questions you should be able to respond to after listening:
  1. What is the queerest thing you did this year?
  2. Do you have a queer tradition for this time of year?
  3. Can you relate to any of the experiences my guests talk about in this episode?
  4. Are you doing okay? If not, let me know and I will help you find a supportive queer community space.
Yesterqueer's Holigays19 Dec 202300:20:20
We're revisiting a holigay chat from two years ago, talking to a wonderful friend about how hard the festive season can be for queer and trans people.

CW: grief, death, trauma, religion, violence, antiqueerness, antitransness, family trauma
The queerest thing you did in 2023: Part One12 Dec 202300:30:38
It’s here! It’s here! The Queer Lit end-of-year special has arrived and it comes in two parts. One you’ll get now and the other we’ll save for Christmas Eve. Tune in to hear me gush about all the lovely messages I received and listen to this year’s Queer Lit guests talk about their supergay highlights of 2023.

References:
Maria Sulimma
Queer Perseverance https://www.anglistik.uni-freiburg.de/events/topicweeks
Queer Second Cities https://queersecondcities.wordpress.com/
Jan Wilm
The Argonauts
Joan Didion
White Elephant
Happiest Season
Out and Wild
Out on the Page
Elizabeth Chakrabarty’s Lessons in Love and Other Crimes
WeirdoMess Market
New House Art Space
The Common Press
The Queery
London LGBTQ Centre
Katherine Hubbard
Diane Watt
SGS MSc https://www.surrey.ac.uk/postgraduate/sex-gender-and-sexualities-msc
I, Joan
The Globe
Kai Minosh Pyle
Trans*temporal kinship
Queer Christmas quiz to download here: https://lenamattheis.wordpress.com/teaching/
Grace Ellis’ Flung Out of Space
Patricia Highsmith’s The Price of Salt
Carol

Questions you should be able to respond to after listening:
  1. What is the queerest thing you did this year?
  2. Do you have a queer tradition for this time of year?
  3. Can you relate to any of the experiences my guests talk about in this episode?
  4. Are you doing okay? If not, let me know and I will help you find a supportive queer community space.
Queer Space Special: “Gay’s The Word” with Erica Gillingham05 Dec 202300:23:31
This extraordinary queer space special makes all my dreams come true: I get to hang out with Erica Gillingham in the basement of Gay’s The Word! Sitting between towering stacks of books and boxes of GTW archival material that goes back all the way to the birth of this magnificent LGBTQ+ bookshop in January 1979, Erica shares some highlights of the turbulent and inspiring history of GTW. She also talks about what is happening in queer publishing right now and shares some of her favourite queer YA and romance authors. Hearing Erica speak about the way in which GTW and its magnificent team of booksellers hold space for our community is truly magical and if I could live in that basement forever, I absolutely would.

All I want for Queermas is for you to follow @gaysthewordbookshop, @ericareadsqueer and @queerlitpodcast on Instagram!

References:
Rosa Guy’s Ruby (1976)
Pride (2015)
Ernest Hall
Oscar Wilde Bookshop (New York City)
Gay Socialists
Icebreakers
Lesbian Discussion Group (LDG)
Gay and Disabled Group
Black Gay Group
Lesbians and Gays Support the Miners (LGSM)
Mark Ashton
Housman’s
Black Lesbian Discussion Group
Ace Reading Group
Jim MacSweeney
Uli Lenart
Common Press
London LGBTQ Centre
Section 28
Laura Kay
Justin Meyers
Alexis Hall
Lily Lindon
Emily Danforth’s The Miseducation of Cameron Post
Malinda Lo
Isabel Waidner’s Corey Fah Does Social Mobility and We Are Made of Diamond Stuff

Questions you should be able to respond to after listening:
  1. When was Gay’s The Word established and what are some of the groups that are associated with the shop?
  2. What does Erica say about the publishing industry and queer books? What are your thoughts on this?
  3. Erica talks about her interest in YA texts and romance novels. Why would queer books in these genres potentially be treated differently by publishers?
  4. Do you remember the first time you went to a designated LGBTQIA+ space? What was that like?
“Two-Spirit Kinship” with Kai Minosh Pyle28 Nov 202300:39:25
What can you do when the language for who you are doesn’t exist yet? Kai Minosh Pyle’s answer: write gorgeous poetry about it! In this episode, Kai reads one of their multilingual pieces, but they also talk about the benefits of using words that ‘kind of’ fit, and about finding trans*temporal kinship with Two-Spirit ancestors in creative writing and scholarly research. Kai introduces us to some less well-known figures from Indigiqueer history, they talk about the challenges of teaching Two-Spirit writing and they even (possibly) coin a new term right here in this episode!

If you are excited at the prospect of finding out what Indigitrans might mean, don’t delay – listen today!

References:

Pyle, Kai, and Danne Jobin. "Transgender, Two-Spirit and Nonbinary Indigenous Literatures: An Introduction." Transmotion 7.1 (2021): 1-9.

Anishinaabe

Métis

Louise (Wzawshek)

Potawatomi

Ozaawindib

Ralph Kerwineo

“The Midwest is a Two-Spirit Place”

Sweeter Voices Still

Trans*temporal kinship

Lisa Tatonetti

Jas Morgan

Wahkohtowin

Aiyyana Maracle’s A Journey in Gender

Ojibwe

Michif

Keguro Macharia

T4T

Jenzen, Olu. "Revolting Doubles: Radical Narcissism and the Trope of Lesbian Doppelgangers." Journal of Lesbian Studies 17.3-4 (2013): 344-364.

Indigitrans

Joshua Whitehead

Arielle Twist

Muxe

Lukas Avendaño

Jenny Davis

Alex Wilson

Gary Bowen

Leslie Feinberg

Whess Harman’s Salmon Journey

https://www.whessharman.com/comics


Questions you should be able to respond to after listening:
  1. In this episode, we speak about Two-Spirit identities without defining the term. Can you briefly explain what Two-Spirit means? If not, please look up the term or listen to the Queer Lit episode on the subject with Lisa Tatonetti.
  2. Please name at least two of the historical Two-Spirit figures Kai introduces here. Were you familiar with any Two-Spirit figure or author before listening to this episode?
  3. Kai speaks about coining the beautiful term ‘trans*temporal’. Can you explain what this means? Have you ever experienced something similar?
  4. With their poem “T4T” and in their research, Kai negotiates how gender moves through language. What does Kai see as benefits of understanding gender through multiple languages? What are challenges?
  5. Did you ever have to translate (literally or figuratively) your gender and/or sexuality? What was that like?
“Second Wave Trans Feminism” with Emily Cousens14 Nov 202300:42:33
You may think that second wave feminism and trans activism are mutually exclusive but guess what: there is actually a whole lot of diversity in second wave feminist theory, writing, activism and print culture. Emily Cousens has done lots of archival research to highlight trans thinking and the way it has informed and shaped second wave feminism. Listen to our conversation to learn more about the grassroots movements, trans newsletters and gendernonconforming thinkers that make the second wave trans.

References:

Emily Cousens’ Trans Feminist Epistemologies in the US Second Wave (Palgrave, 2023)

University of Victoria Archives

GLBT Historical Society San Francisco

Digital Transgender Archive https://www.digitaltransgenderarchive.net/

Louise Lawrence Archive San Francisco

Ms Bob Davis

Virginia Prince

Transvestia

Foundation for Full Personality Expression (FPE)

STAR Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries

Black Lives Matter

Sisters Uncut

Combahee River Collective

Foucault

Barbara Smith

Judith Butler

Maxine Wolf

Lesbian Avengers

Dyke March

DressingDykes (Eleanor Medhurst) https://dressingdykes.com/2022/03/25/clothing-culture-at-the-lesbian-conference/

Tri Sigma Heterosexual Crossdresser’s Society

Robert Stoller

John Money

Kate Millet

Gayle Rubin

Margo Schulter

Meg-John Barker

Leslie Feinberg

Beth Elliott

Sandy Stone

Radclyffe Hall’s The Well of Loneliness

Questions you should be able to respond to after listening:
  1. What is second wave feminism and how is it frequently misrepresented?
  2. Why are trans studies and second wave feminism often viewed as incompatible? What are Emily’s thoughts on this?
  3. What are some of the sources Emily works with? How is print culture defined here?
  4. Who is John Money? Why is he significant?
  5. How does Emily describe the role of nonbinary and intersex people in their research?
  6. How are trans men and trans women viewed differently in second wave feminism?
How queer was your year?09 Nov 202300:01:54
If you would like to be a part of the Queer Lit winter tradition, let me know about the queerest thing you did this year and/or any queer winter/holiday traditions and reading recommendations by the end of November. Can't wait to hear from you at queerlitpodcast@gmail.com!
“Before We Were Trans” with Kit Heyam17 Sep 202400:36:40
Kit Heyam’s amazing history of gender nonconformity across the globe is a dazzling journey into the intricacies of trans history and if it’s not your favourite book already, it will be after listening to this episode. Learn why Kit particularly enjoyed writing about Edo Japan, what they discovered about intersex history and who their favourite person to write about was. We also have a discussion about how biological sex has always been a difficult thing to define and, drumroll, Kit even tells me what their next book will be about…

Grab your earphones, start listening, and follow @kitheyamwriter and @queerlitpodcast on Instagram to learn more.  

References:
Kit Heyam’s Before We Were Trans (2022)
Kit Heyam’s The Reputation of Edward II, 1305-1697 (2020)
Igbo
Edo Japan
Shunga
Wakashū
Sexology
Thomas/Thomasine Hall
Roberta Cowell
Meg-John Barker
Princess Seraphina
Blake Gutt
Iphis and Ianthe
Harlan Weaver’s Bad Dog: Pit Bull Politics and Multispecies Justice (2011)
Mo Moulton
Hijra
Jessica Hinchy
Jules Gill-Peterson
@kitheyamwriter
Sara Taylor’s The Lauras
Ada Palmer’s Terra Ignota
The Iliad  

Questions you should be able to respond to after listening:
  1.      What is Kit’s view of trans history? How do they feel about labels?
  2.      We speak about how gender expression and sexuality may intersect (although of course they are separate for some people). What does Kit see as a challenge here? Is your gender connected to your sexuality?
  3.      One of Kit’s favourite chapters is about biological sex. How would you define biological sex? How has it been defined historically in the examples Kit provides?
  4.      What does trans family mean to you?
  5.      Kit briefly speaks about the agency of children. Why is that an important topic in queer and trans studies and lives?
Spooky Special: "Trans-fixing Media” with Cáel Keegan31 Oct 202300:44:33
We’re so done with scary trans villains and monsters – or are we? Cáel Keegan explains why we might be able to learn lessons about trans liberation from Buffalo Bill and why The Silence of the Lambs, upon its release, was actually protested for homophobia. Cáel speaks about transfixing and spellbinding media, from The Matrix to Buffy to video games. Dark Willow makes an appearance. Not to be missed.

References:

Keegan, Cáel M. Lana and Lilly Wachowski. University of Illinois Press, 2018.

Keegan, Cáel M. "Emptying the future: Queer melodramatics and negative utopia in Buffy the Vampire Slayer." Queer Studies in Media & Popular Culture 1.1 (2016): 9-22.

Keegan, Cáel M. "Getting disciplined: What’s trans* about queer studies now?." Journal of homosexuality 67.3 (2020): 384-397.

Keegan, Cáel M., Laura Horak, and Eliza Steinbock. "Cinematic/trans*/bodies now (and then, and to come)." Somatechnics 8.1 (2018): 1-13.

Orange is the New Black

The Matrix

The Silence of the Lambs

Hannibal Lecter

Jodie Foster

Homonormativity

Mads Mikkelsen

Anthony Hopkins

Will Graham

Buffalo Bill

Dark Willow

Soldier’s Girl

Hil Malatino

Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha

Mark Fisher’s Capitalist Realism

Judith Butler’s Panicked Mimesis

McKenzie Wark’s Gamer Theory

Work in Progress

Abby McEnany

Theo Germaine

They/Them

Edie Fake’s Gaylord Phoenix


Questions you should be able to respond to after listening:
  1. Why is Cáel so interested in mass media? What can we learn from widely received stories – even, or especially when, they’re problematic?
  2. Cáel explains how we can take care of difficult texts or even diffuse them like bombs. What does this mean? Did either concept resonate with you?
  3. What is cisgender realism and which theorist is Cáel building on with this concept?
  4. What is your favourite scary queer text and why is it Carmilla?
VINTAGE Fear Lit: “Queerness and Race in Gothic and Horror” with Maisha Wester24 Oct 202300:47:48
Get the garlic, sprinkle the holy water, but please, leave the antiqueer racism out of my Gothic romance! Dr Maisha Wester (Sheffield/Indiana University) explains why Horror films are so interesting to study, what Brexit has to do with Zombies, why King Kong film posters reveal blatant racism, and why ghosts are not always gay but most definitely queer. Lusty lesbian vampires, Cat People (are those the same?), spiders, sharks, and Supernatural fan fiction: this episode has everything the tell-tale heart could want.
Texts, Films and Stories mentioned:
Dracula
King Kong
Le Fanu’s Carmilla
Julia Kristeva’s Powers of Horror: An Essay on Abjection
Family Guy
The Perfection
Roderick Ferguson’s The Nightmares of the Heteronormative
The Hottentot Venus
Raw
Cat People
I walked with a Zombie
Ganja & Hess
Arachnophobia
Jaws
Tendai Huchu’s The Library of the Dead
The Amityville Horror
Teju Cole’s Open City
Octavia Butler’s “Bloodchild”
Supernatural
The Haunting of Bly Manor

Not scared enough? Follow Maisha (@maishawester) and me (@queerlitpodcast) on Instagram.

Questions you should be able to respond to after listening:

1. In what ways are horror narratives and motifs political?
2. Why are queerness and race frequently negotiated in Gothic and horror stories?
3. Why are vampires often coded as queer? Which example for this does Maisha give? Do you have a favourite vampire?
4. What is the abject? What is Other(ing) in literary studies?
5. Open question: What do you think about the role of fear in the representation of queerness and race?
“Realness, Loss and Underdogs” with Heather Love17 Oct 202300:46:32
It’s time to be real. In this episode with queer studies luminary Heather Love, it’s all about what you find, what you feel, what you knooooow(-ah) to be real. We talk about feeling and looking backward while shifting paradigms, about the semiprivate space of the queer classrooms, about the entanglements of queer, trans and disability studies and so much more. Tune in now and follow @queerlitpodcast on Instagram for more realness and reading recs.

References to Heather’s work:

Underdogs: Social Deviance and Queer Theory. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2021.

Feeling Backward: Loss and the Politics of Queer History. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2007.

2023 Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick Memorial Lecture in Gender + Sexuality Studies by Heather Love
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZU6bT2ZtNlA

“Assessing Critique, Scholarly ‘Habits,’ Queer Method and ‘Turns’: An Interview with Heather Love.” In Feminist Encounters: A Journal of Critical Studies in Culture and Politics, ed. Salla Peltonen and Marianne Liljeström 1.1 (Autumn 2017).

“Gyn/Apology: Sarah Orne Jewett’s Spinster Aesthetics.” ESQ: A Journal of the American Renaissance. ESQ 55.3-4 (Winter 2009): 305-334.

“Safe.” American Literary History 25.1 (Spring 2013): 1-12. Special issue on second books, ed. Gordon Hunter.

Other references:

Davy Knittle
Paris is Burning
Cheryl Lynn’s “To Be Real”
Susan Stryker’s “My Words to Victor Frankenstein” (GLQ, 1994)
Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein
Jacques Derrida
Jean-Paul Sartre
Judith Butler’s Gender Trouble
Alison Kafer’s Feminist Queer Crip
Tobin Siebers Rachel Carroll
Susan Stryker’s “More words about ‘My words to Victor Frankenstein’.” (GLQ, 2019)
Audre Lorde’s “The Uses of Anger”
William Wordsworth: “Overflow of powerful feelings [...] recollected in tranquillity”
Ellen Rooney. “A Semiprivate Room.” (Differences, 2002)
Paolo Freire
Herb Kohl
bell hooks
Patricia Highsmith’s The Price of Salt
Carol
Grace Ellis’ Flung Out Of Space

Questions you should be able to respond to after listening:
  1. How does Heather define realness? How does it relate to realism and authenticity? What does being real mean to you?
  2. What does Heather say about the impulse to prioritise novelty in queer studies and in capitalist systems?
  3. Which Susan Stryker essay does Heather speak about? Why does she find it so important?
  4. How do affect studies come into Heather’s work? What does she say about Audre Lorde and writing from a place of anger?
  5. Do you think that the classroom is a ‘semiprivate’ space? Take a look at the Rooney essay to investigate.
  6. Please pick one of the texts Heather mentions (either her own or other scholars’ work) and read it. The reading recommendations in this episode are heartfelt and brilliant!
“The Coast is Queer” with Sarah Boira and Vedrana Velickovic03 Oct 202300:23:43
Have you asked yourself lately: What could I do to make my October really super extra queer? Sarah Boira and Vedrana Velickovic have THE festival for you. Listen to this episode to learn all about The Coast is Queer, the UK’s first LGBTQIA+ literary festival that celebrates all texts queer. Some of the events to get excited about: a panel on queer Ukraine, an event about invisible identities, a zine making workshop with lots of participation and plenty of partying with performance poets and open mic nights! Find out more on Instagram (@coastisqueerfest) or on the festival website. Everything is happening (and it really sounds like it’s happening) from 12-15 October at the Attenborough Centre for Creative Arts in Brighton. References: https://coastisqueer.com/ New Writing South https://www.newwritingsouth.com/ Marlborough Productions https://marlboroughproductions.org.uk/ Centre for the Study of Sexual Dissidence https://www.sussex.ac.uk/research/centres/centre-for-study-of-sexual-dissidence/ Okechukwu Nzelu’s Here Again Now Johanna Hedva’s “Sick Woman Theory” and “Why It’s Taking So Long” https://topicalcream.org/features/sick-woman-theory/ https://topicalcream.org/features/why-its-taking-so-long/ Questions you should be able to respond to after listening: 1. If you could curate a panel for a queer lit festival, who would you invite and what would the topic be? 2. What does ‘literature’ mean for Sarah and Vedrana? What is your definition of literature? 3. Sarah and Vedrana talk about queering the form of the festival. What does that entail? 4. Which author that you heard about in this episode are you looking up?
“Black Feminist Lessons” with Alexis Pauline Gumbs19 Sep 202300:50:30
This episode takes us deep, deep into the queer ocean. Alexis Pauline Gumbs submerges us in Black feminist thought, takes us on a deep dive into queer creativity, and, most importantly, allows us to rethink our breathing through gills, lungs, mouths, and bills. Listen now to learn about how Audre Lorde, June Jordan and M. Jacqui Alexander have influenced Alexis Pauline’s work and why marine mammals play such a central part in her writing.

Follow @alexispauline and @queerlitpodcast on Instagram and a mystical manatee will visit you in a dream.

References to Alexis Pauline Gumbs’ work:

Undrowned
M Archive
Dub
Spill
Revolutionary Mothering
Survival Is a Promise: The Eternal Life of Audre Lorde (2024)

Other references:

Auburn Avenue Research Library
Black Panther Party
Elaine Brown’s A Taste of Power
Audre Lorde
June Jordan
Helen Oyeyemi’s The Opposite House
Ada Gay Griffin
Michelle Parkerson
A Litany for Survival: The Life and Work of Audre Lorde
Briona Simone Jones
Dub
Sylvia Wynter
Combahee River Collective
Barbara Smith
Julie Otsuka’s The Buddha in the Attic
M. Jacqui Alexander’s Pedagogies of Crossing
I Am Your Sister: Black Women Organizing Across Sexualities
Audre Lorde’s The Black Unicorn

Questions you should be able to respond to after listening:
  1. What fascinates Alexis Pauline Gumbs about archival research and what does she find in archives that you cannot find in books?
  2. Why is Audre Lorde an important figure in queer writing and Black feminism?
  3. Why is breathing central to Alexis’ thinking?
  4. How does Alexis describe the meaning and potential of ‘queerness’?
  5. Which mammals do you feel most connected to and how might this connection shift the way you think about your non-human environment?
"Queer Ecologies and Mulberries" with Cate Sandilands05 Sep 202300:43:17
Did you know that yew trees can (and do) change sex? And that many trees are nonbinary? Genderqueer greenery is only one of the fascinating (tree) topics this conversation branches off into. If you want to em-bark on a journey into queer ecologies, this is the sapisode for you. Cate talks about leafing through the herbal archives at Kew Gardens, the role of storytelling in understanding ecologies, and about discovering female forests. Tune in now and everything will be coming up roses – or mulberries.

References:

Cate Sandilands’ The Good-Natured Feminist
Cate Sandilands’ Rising Tides: Reflections for Climate Changing Times
Cate Sandilands’ “Mulberry Intimacies and the Sweetness of Kinship” (Ecologies of Gender)
Kew Gardens
Queer Nature
https://www.kew.org/kew-gardens/whats-on/queer-nature
Jamaica Osorio
K-Ming Chang’s Bestiary
Rosanna McLaughlin’s Sinkhole: Three Crimes
Callum Angus’ A Natural History of Transition
Joshua Whitehead’s Making Love with the Love
King James I
Alexis Shotwell’s Against Purity
Oriana Schwarzenshuber
Vin Nardizzi
Fortingall Yew
https://storyingclimatechange.com/
Sarah Orne Jewett
Willa Cather
Radclyffe Hall’s The Well of Loneliness
Diana Souhami
Vita Sackville-West’s The Land
Alexis Pauline Gumbs’s Undrowned and M Archive
Shani Mootoo’s Cereus Blooms At Night

Questions you should be able to respond to after listening:
  1. What might queer ecologies be?
  2. Can you compare my definition with Cate’s? What is similar, what is different?
  3. What roles can storytelling play in climate change and in queer ecologies?
  4. What might the ‘Edenic past’ be and how does it relate to ‘purity’?
  5. Which species is your life entangled with?
  6. Bonus question: In this episode, Cate explains that “A lot of the most interesting thinking proceeds through story as much as it proceeds through theory.” Do you agree?
“Queerness in the USSR” with Rustam Alexander22 Aug 202300:48:44
What did queer life look like in Soviet Russia? Rustam Alexander has written two whole books about gay oppression in Russian history and is here to share what they learned in the archives, from diaries, and from doctors’ records. From the revolution to the ‘gay propaganda’ law of 2013, Rustam talks about the state and the history of Russian queerness. We discuss gay activism, the medicalisation of queerness and a very curious shift in legislation…

CW: homophobia, medicalisation of queerness, conversion therapy, aversion therapy

References:

Regulating Homosexuality in Soviet Russia, 1956-91 (Manchester UP, 2021)

Red Closet: The Hidden History of Gay Oppression in the USSR (Manchester UP, 2023)

Russia’s Gay Propaganda Law (2013)

Dan Healey’s Homosexual Desire in Revolutionary Russia

Harry Whyte

Stalin

Tsarist Regime

Bolsheviks

Russian Revolution

GULAG

Doctor Goland

Dennis Altman’s Homosexual Oppression and Liberation


Questions you should be able to respond to after listening:
  1. Was homosexuality always criminalised in Russia?
  2. Which are some of Rustam’s main sources?
  3. Which major shifts in attitudes towards queerness does Rustam discuss?
  4. What does Rustam say about rural and urban spaces? Have you heard about or experienced this spatial dichotomy before?
  5. What does oppression mean? Have you ever experienced or witnessed oppression?
“Queer Second Cities and Serial Bisexuality” with Maria Sulimma08 Aug 202300:49:13
A dog walks into a lesbian bar. I am not sure there is a punchline but there is definitely a podcast episode here. Listen to this chat with my lovely friend and colleague Maria to hear about the conference we will be hosting together, about queerness and/in the city, about seriality and sexuality, and about Maria’s fascinating take on TV and identity.

Follow @queerlitpodcast on Instagram and help us answer the question of all questions: Berlin or Cologne?

References to Maria’s work:

City Scripts: Narratives of Postindustrial Urban Futures. Co-edited with Barbara Buchenau and Jens Martin Gurr, the Ohio State University Press (2023).

“Surviving the City: Zombies, Run! and the Horrors of Urban Exercise.” Playing the Field II: American Studies, Video Games, and Space, edited by Dietmar Meinel. De Gruyter, 2022. 223-240.

Gender and Seriality: Practices and Politics of Contemporary US Television. Edinburgh: University Press, 2021.

“Defined by Distance: The Roadtrip and Queer Love in Alice Isn’t Dead.” Special Issue “Feminism, Gender, and Podcast Studies,” edited by Julia Hoydis. Gender Forum 77 (2020): 69-89.
http://genderforum.org/1596-2/

Die anderen Ministerpräsidenten – Geschlecht in der printmedialen Berichterstattung über Berufspolitik. Berlin: LIT Verlag, 2014.

Other references:

https://queersecondcities.wordpress.com/

queersecondcities@gmail.com

ALUS https://blogs.helsinki.fi/hlc-n/

Zombies, Run!

Lieven Ameel (et al) Literary Second Cities

Scott Herring’s Another Country: Queer Anti-Urbanism

Jack Halberstam

Metronormativity

Stuart Hall

Raymond Williams

Angela McRobbie

How To Get Away With Murder

The Hundred

Maria San Filippo’s The B Word

House

Spiral Gendering

Ben Robbins

James Baldwin’s Another Country (1962)

The Last Black Man in San Francisco


Questions you should be able to respond to after listening:
  1. What is a second city?
  2. What do cities have to do with queerness?
  3. Maria briefly speaks about metronormativity. Please find a definition for this term and think about how it is relevant to urban/rural queer spaces.
  4. What is seriality? Which kinds of narratives might this concept apply to?
  5. How is seriality relevant to gender and sexuality? Maria speaks about bisexuality but maybe you can think of storylines in series that deal with other aspects of queerness?
“The Queer Middle Ages” with Diane Watt  25 Jul 202300:35:26
We know that queer and trans people have always been around, but how do you go about finding them? Diane Watt is here to show us how it’s done: all you need is lesbian methodology, queer philology, and tiny curtains. Intrigued? Tune in to learn more and to listen to Diane and I discuss shared butch lesbian and transmasculine histories, lesbian nuns, and medieval dildos.

If this all sounds too good to be true, you can make sure that Diane is a real (and really awesome) person by checking @Diane_Watt on Twitter or @medievalist.on.the.run on Instagram. @queerlitpodcast is there too.

References:
Diane Watt, Corinne Saunders (2023) Women and Medieval Literary Culture. Cambridge University Press.
R Magnani, Diane Watt (2018) “Towards a Queer Philology,” Postmedieval: A Journal of Medieval Cultural Studies 9:3, 252-268.
Diane Watt (2017) “A Fragmentary Archive: Migratory Feelings in Early Anglo-Saxon Women’s Letters,” Journal of Homosexuality 64:3, 415-429.
N Giffney, MM Sauer, D Watt (2011) The Lesbian Premodern. Palgrave MacMillan.
Diane Watt (2007) Medieval Women's Writing: Works by and for Women in England, 1100-1500. Polity Press.
Diane Watt (2003) Amoral Gower. University of Minnesota Press.
Diane Watt (1997) Secretaries of God. D.S. Brewer.
Margery Kempe
Margaret Paston
Eleanor Rykener
Susan Lanser’s The Sexuality of History
Judith Bennett
Lesbian-like
Roberta Magnani
Elizabeth Freeman
Temporal drag
Iphis and Ianthe
John Gower’s Confessio Amantis
Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales
Christopher Ricks
Lara Farina
St Albans Psalter
Christina of Markyate
How To Read Podcast
https://www.howtoreadpodcast.com/andrew-albin-sounds-medieval-books/
M.W. Bychowski “Trans Textuality: Dysphoria in the Depths of Medieval Skin”
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1057/s41280-018-0090-6
Duke Humfrey’s Library
Bodleian Library
Huon of Bordeaux
The Museum of Sex Objects
Julian of Norwich
Anne Lister’s Diaries

Questions you should be able to respond to after listening:
  1. What does Diane tell us about records of medieval lesbians in England and Wales?
  2. What is queer philology? How is it different from other definitions of philology?
  3. What examples of lesbian methods does Diane give?
  4. Diane talks about trans book history and makes an interesting observation about scars. What do you think about this?
  5. How can literature teach us new things about history when other records might be limited? What might be benefits and limitations of such an approach?
“Out and Wild” with Elizabeth Chakrabarty11 Jul 202300:15:28
Join @DrNChakrabarty and I in the magic teapot at @OutandWildlgbtq to talk about reading in queer spaces, writing about race hate crimes, and community at queer events. We also reflect on academic structures and queer encounters, critical race theory and cultural differences in talking about race. It was such a pleasure running into Elizabeth again and if you’re not a fan already, you will be after listening to this!

CW: racism, race hate crimes

References: Elizabeth Chakrabarty’s Lessons in Love and Other Crimes
https://elizabethchakrabarty.com/
https://outandwild.co.uk/
https://www.postcolonial-participation.hhu.de/en/

Questions may want to reflect on after listening:
  1. What makes a queer festival queer?
  2. What do you think is the role of cultural events, such as readings or performances, in queer spaces?
  3. What do you think about the intersectional issues Elizabeth addresses with race and queerness? Does anything in the conversation surprise you?
  4. We reflect on readings and discussions in queer spaces versus academic venues. Do you think queer spaces provide something academia cannot?
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