Episodes

  • 100 Episodes!

    100 Episodes!
    May 21 2024
    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?
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    25 mins
  • “Normporn and Queer Imaginaries” with Karen Tongson

    “Normporn and Queer Imaginaries” with Karen Tongson
    May 14 2024
    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?
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    54 mins
  • “Trans in Translation” with Alberto Poza

    “Trans in Translation” with Alberto Poza
    Apr 30 2024
    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?
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    18 mins
  • “Knight as a Gender” with Mabel Mundy

    “Knight as a Gender” with Mabel Mundy
    Apr 16 2024
    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?
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    15 mins
  • “Gendered Bodies and Narrative Form” with Chiara Pellegrini

    “Gendered Bodies and Narrative Form” with Chiara Pellegrini
    Apr 2 2024
    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?
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    45 mins
  • Humanities under Threat

    Humanities under Threat
    Mar 19 2024

    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
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    27 mins
  • “Feeling Bad” with Hil Malatino

    “Feeling Bad” with Hil Malatino
    Mar 5 2024
    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?
    Show more Show less
    50 mins
  • “Hijab Butch Blues” with Lamya H.

    “Hijab Butch Blues” with Lamya H.
    Feb 20 2024
    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?
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    39 mins