Queer Lit
Queer Lit is a podcast about LGBTQIA+* literature and culture. In each episode, literary studies researcher Lena Mattheis talks to an expert in the field of queer studies. Topics include lesbian literature, inclusive pronouns and language, gay history, trans and non-binary novels, intersectionality and favourite queer films, series or poems. New episode every other week! queerlitpodcast@gmail.com https://lenamattheis.wordpress.com/queerlit Twitter and Instagram: @queerlitpodcast Music by geovanebruny from Pixabay
Episodes
April 16, 2024 • 14 mins
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 ...
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April 2, 2024 • 45 mins
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...
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March 19, 2024 • 27 mins
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...
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March 5, 2024 • 50 mins
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,...
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February 20, 2024 • 39 mins
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 ...
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February 6, 2024 • 45 mins
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...
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January 23, 2024 • 41 mins
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...
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January 9, 2024 • 39 mins
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 h...
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December 26, 2023 • 24 mins
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+ Communit...
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+ Communit...
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December 19, 2023 • 20 mins
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
CW: grief, death, trauma, religion, violence, antiqueerness, antitransness, family trauma
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December 12, 2023 • 30 mins
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 htt...
References:
Maria Sulimma
Queer Perseverance https://www.anglistik.uni-freiburg.de/events/topicweeks
Queer Second Cities htt...
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December 5, 2023 • 23 mins
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 que...
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November 28, 2023 • 39 mins
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 Indigiqu...
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November 14, 2023 • 42 mins
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 newslett...
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November 9, 2023 • 1 min
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!
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October 31, 2023 • 44 mins
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 ...
References:
Keegan, Cáel M. Lana ...
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October 24, 2023 • 47 mins
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 ...
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October 17, 2023 • 46 mins
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 a...
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October 3, 2023 • 23 mins
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 par...
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September 19, 2023 • 50 mins
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 w...
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