Queer Lit Lena Mattheis

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?

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:
    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?     What does ‘embodiment’ mean when it comes to narration?     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?     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?     How do you feel about some of the recent queer reality TV shows?    

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

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:
Which types of affects does Hil write about in Side Affects? What role do they play in trans storytelling? Can you list the bad feelings that Hil discusses in the book? Hint: You can also look at the table of contents online. How does Hil describe the method of Side Affects, in terms of selecting and discussing texts? Why does Hil find ‘triumphant’ narratives about trans lives problematic? Can you think of an example of such a narrative? Hil speaks about positionality in academic writing. How do you feel about this? Do you write about yourself in your work?

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:
Lamya writes in a very interesting form of memoir. What makes the structure of their novel unique?What does Lamya think about coming out narratives and how they are changing in contemporary literature?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.What does Lamya say about the queer future? What do you think the queer future, or the future of queer narratives, will look like?

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?