Queer Lit Lena Mattheis

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:
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?What does Nora say about the temporal structure of trauma and storytelling?What might the study of narrative have to do with mental health?Which narratives can social media convey about everyday life in Gaza? Which examples does Nora give?How willing are you to engage with narratives that are uncomfortable?

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:
     Can you name at least three historical fashion icons we speak about in the episode?     Eleanor explains why literature is important in fashion history. In which ways does Ellie use literary texts to learn about lesbian dress?     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?     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?     Do you think lesbians are fashionable?

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:
     What can I do to make my listeners even happier?     Who are all these awesome people that spend their time with me and my guests?     Will I really make another 100 episodes?     When will Rufus take over as podcast host?

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:
     Can you define ‘normporn’ and give an example of what might be a typical normporn show?     What is the ‘porn’ in ‘normporn’? How does shame play into watching mainstream TV as queer escapism?     What role does grief play in relation to normporn?     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?     Which show do you find particularly soothing and why?

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:
     Have you ever read a queer text in different languages? Do you experience gender differently depending on language?     Why do we gender some machines and not others?     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?     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?     If you could speak any language fluently, which one would you choose and why?      

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:
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.Why is Mabel particularly interested in doing research on chivalric romances?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?Do you have a favourite knight?