The Lesbian Historic Motif Podcast

Queer Women’s Communities and Meeting Places - The Lesbian Historic Motif Podcast Episode 55

Queer Women’s Communities and Meeting Places

The Lesbian Historic Motif Podcast - Episode 55

An exploration of how and where women met to pursue romantic and sexual relationships with each other.

In this episode we talk about:

• The problem of assuming that male and female homosexual experiences are equivalent in history
• Fictional and conceptual communities
• Public meeting places
• Small personal communities
• Lesbian sex clubs

The following podcasts are referenced in this show:

• Diana and Callisto: The Sometimes Problematic Search for Representation
• Charlotte Cushman: 19th century lesbian actress and celebrity

The following publications covered on the blog are mentioned in this show or used as sources:

• Albert, Nicole G. (Trans. Nancy Erber and William A. Peniston) 2016. Lesbian Decadence: Representations in Art and Literature of Fin-de-siècle France. Harrington Park Press, New York. ISBN 978-1-939-59407-5 (not yet posted in the blog)
• Bennett, Judith M. 2000. "’Lesbian-Like' and the Social History of Lesbianism" in Journal of the History of Sexuality: 9:1-24.
• Borris, Kenneth (ed). 2004. Same-Sex Desire in the English Renaissance: A Sourcebook of Texts, 1470-1650. Routledge, New York. ISBN 978-1-138-87953-9
• Donoghue, Emma. 1995. Passions Between Women: British Lesbian Culture 1668-1801. Harper Perennial, New York. ISBN 0-06-017261-4
• Donoghue, Emma. 2010. “'Random Shafts of Malice?': The Outings of Anne Damer” in Lesbian Dames: Sapphism in the Long Eighteenth Century. Beynon, John C. & Caroline Gonda eds. Ashgate, Farnham. ISBN 978-0-7546-7335-4
• Habib, Samar. 2009. Arabo-Islamic Texts on Female Homosexuality: 850-1780 A.D. Teneo Press, Youngstown. ISBN 978-1-934844-11-3
• Hunt, Margaret R. 1999. “The Sapphic Strain: English Lesbians in the Long Eighteenth Century” in Bennett, Judith M. & Amy M. Froide eds. Singlewomen in the European Past 1250-1800. University of Pennsylvania Press, Philadelphia. ISBN 0-8122-1668-7
• Lanser, Susan S. 2014. The Sexuality of History: Modernity and the Sapphic, 1565-1830. University of Chicago Press, Chicago. ISBN 978-0-226-18773-0
• Merrick, Jeffrey & Bryant T. Ragan, Jr. 2001. Homosexuality in Early Modern France: A Documentary Collection. Oxford University Press, New York. ISBN 0-19-510257-6
• Norton, Rictor (ed.), Homosexuality in Eighteenth-Century England: A Sourcebook. Updated 7 September 2014 http://rictornorton.co.uk/eighteen/. (Accessed 2014/09/13)
• Traub, Valerie. 2002. The Renaissance of Lesbianism in Early Modern England. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge. ISBN 0-521-44885-9
• Walen, Denise A. 2005. Constructions of Female Homoeroticism in Early Modern Drama. New York: Palgrave MacMillan. ISBN 978-1-4039-6875-3
• Whitbread, Helena ed. 1992. I Know My Own Heart: The Diaries of Anne Lister 1791-1840. New York University Press, New York. ISBN 0-8147-9249-9

A transcript of this podcast is available here.

Links to the Lesbian Historic Motif Project Online

• Website: http://alpennia.com/lhmp
• Blog: http://alpennia.com/blog
• RSS: http://alpennia.com/blog/feed/
• Twitter: @LesbianMotif
• Discord: Contact Heather for an invitation to the Alpennia/LHMP Discord server
• The Lesbian Historic Motif Project Patreon

Links to Heather Online

• Website: http://alpennia.com
• Email: Heather Rose Jones
• Twitter: @heatherosejones
• Facebook: Heather Rose Jones (author page)

Book Appreciation with Jeannelle M. Ferreira - The Lesbian Historic Motif Podcast Episode 54

Book Appreciation with Jeannelle M. Ferreira

The Lesbian Historic Motif Podcast - Episode 54

In the Book Appreciation segments, our featured authors (or your host) will talk about one or more favorite books with queer female characters in a historic setting.

• Spring Flowering by Farah Mendlesohn
• Kissing the Witch by Emma Donoghue
• Room by Emma Donoghue (non-queer)
• Passions Between Women by Emma Donoghue (non-fiction)
• We Are Michael Field by Emma Donoghue (biography)
• Daughter of Mystery by Heather Rose Jones
• Backwards to Oregon by Jae
• The Steerswoman by Rosemary Kirstein (series)

A transcript of this podcast may be available here. (Transcripts added when available.)

Links to the Lesbian Historic Motif Project Online

• Website: http://alpennia.com/lhmp
• Blog: http://alpennia.com/blog
• RSS: http://alpennia.com/blog/feed/
• Twitter: @LesbianMotif
• Discord: Contact Heather for an invitation to the Alpennia/LHMP Discord server
• The Lesbian Historic Motif Project Patreon

Links to Heather Online

• Website: http://alpennia.com
• Email: Heather Rose Jones
• Twitter: @heatherosejones
• Facebook: Heather Rose Jones (author page)

Links to Jeannelle M. Ferreira Online

• Website: Jeannelle Writes
• Twitter: @JeannelleWrites

Interview with Jeannelle M. Ferreira - The Lesbian Historic Motif Podcast Episode 53

Interview with Jeannelle M. Ferreira

The Lesbian Historic Motif Podcast - Episode 53

A series of interviews with authors of historically-based fiction featuring queer women.

In this episode we talk about:

• The attractions of the Regency romance
• Jeannelle’s earlier works, especially a novel set in the Vilna ghetto during WWII
• Jewish influences in her writing
• Jeannelle’s background as a student of history
• Sexuality and PTSD in the Regency era
• The National Trust’s website on queer history in the UK
• Finding queer-coded characters in childhood favorite books
• Researching war in Waterloo diaries of British soldiers
• The path through British historical YA fiction that leads to a study of imperial and colonial history
• Horses and swords--it always comes back to horses and swords
• Future projects: more about Nora and Harriet, gender-bending Kit Marlowe, World War I flying aces, and lesbian pirates
• Books mentioned
  • The Covert Captain: Or, A Marriage of Equals by Jeannelle M. Ferreira
  • A Verse from Babylon by Jeannelle M. Ferreira (out of print)
  • Dramatis Personae by Jeannelle M. Ferreira (novelette, out of print)
  • Ballet Shoes by Noel Streatfeild
  • Spring Flowering by Farah Mendlesohn

A transcript of this podcast may be available here. (Transcripts added when available.)

Links to the Lesbian Historic Motif Project Online

• Website: http://alpennia.com/lhmp
• Blog: http://alpennia.com/blog
• RSS: http://alpennia.com/blog/feed/
• Twitter: @LesbianMotif
• Discord: Contact Heather for an invitation to the Alpennia/LHMP Discord server
• The Lesbian Historic Motif Project Patreon

Links to Heather Online

• Website: http://alpennia.com
• Email: Heather Rose Jones
• Twitter: @heatherosejones
• Facebook: Heather Rose Jones (author page)

Links to Jeannelle M. Ferreira Online

• Website: Jeannelle Writes
• Twitter: @JeannelleWrites

On the Shelf for May 2018 - The Lesbian Historic Motif Podcast Episode 52

On the Shelf for May 2018

The Lesbian Historic Motif Podcast - Episode 52 with Heather Rose Jones

Your monthly update on what the Lesbian Historic Motif Project has been doing.

In this episode we talk about:

• Recent and upcoming publications covered on the blog
  • Crawford, Julie. 2009. “Women’s Secretaries” in Queer Renaissance Historiography, Vin Nardizzi, Stephen Guy-Bray & Will Stockton, eds. Ashgate, Burlington VT. ISBN 978-0-7546-7608-9
  • Drouin, Jennifer. 2009. “Diana’s Band: Safe Spaces, Publics, and Early Modern Lesbianism” in Queer Renaissance Historiography, Vin Nardizzi, Stephen Guy-Bray & Will Stockton, eds. Ashgate, Burlington VT. ISBN 978-0-7546-7608-9
  • Putter, Ad. “Transvestite Knights in Medieval Life and History” in Cohen, Jeffrey Jerome & Bonnie Wheeler (eds). 1997. Becoming Male in the Middle Ages. Garland, New York.
  • Rowson, Everett K. 2003. “Gender Irregularity as Entertainment: Institutionalized Transvestism at the Caliphal Court in Medieval Baghdad” in Farmer, Sharon & Carol Braun Pasternack (eds). Gender and Difference in the Middle Ages. University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis. ISBN 0-8166-3893-4
  • Wiethaus, Ulrike. “In Serch of Medieval Women’s Friendships: Hildegard of Bingen’s Letters to her Female Contemporaries” in Wiethaus, Ulrike (ed). 1993. Maps of Flesh and Light: The Religious Experience of Medieval Women Mystics. Syracuse University Press, Syracuse.
  • Kruk, Remke. 1998. “The Bold and the Beautiful: Women and ‘fitna’ in the Sirat Dhat al-Himma: The Story of Nura” in Women in the Medieval Islamic World: Power, Patronage, and Piety, ed. Gavin R. G. Hambly. New York: St. Martin’s Press. ISBN 0-312-21057-4
  • Bennett, Judith and Shannon McSheffrey. 2014. “Early, Exotic and Alien: Women Dressed as Men in Late Medieval London” in History Workshop Journal. 77 (1): 1-25.
• Announcing this month’s author guest, Jeannelle M. Ferreira
• New and forthcoming fiction
  • The Potion by R.G. Emanuelle from Dirt Road Books.
  • A Touch of Truth, Book One: Raven, Fire and Ice by Nita Round from Silver Dragon Books.
  • Paris Adrift (Juliana #3) by Vanda. Sans Merci Press.
  • Thora: A Spartan Hoplite’s Slave by Red Hope from Little Red Wings
• Ask Sappho: Why isn’t there an Ask Sappho question this month?

A transcript of this podcast is available here.

Links to the Lesbian Historic Motif Project Online

• Website: http://alpennia.com/lhmp
• Blog: http://alpennia.com/blog
• RSS: http://alpennia.com/blog/feed/
• Twitter: @LesbianMotif
• Discord: Contact Heather for an invitation to the Alpennia/LHMP Discord server
• The Lesbian Historic Motif Project Patreon

Links to Heather Online

• Website: http://alpennia.com
• Email: Heather Rose Jones
• Twitter: @heatherosejones
• Facebook: Heather Rose Jones (author page)

Diana and Callisto: The Sometimes Problematic Search for Representation - The Lesbian Historic Motif Podcast Episode 51

Diana and Callisto: The Sometimes Problematic Search for Representation

The Lesbian Historic Motif Podcast - Episode 51 with Heather Rose Jones

Ovid’s myth of Diana and Callisto had lasting popularity through the medieval and early modern periods and provided a context for some unexpected representation of erotic interactions between women. But hoo boy are there some problematic aspects to this topic!

In this episode we talk about:

• The goddess Diana and her attributes
• The myths of Diana and Acteon, and of Diana and Callisto
• Virginity and chastity and what they have to do with lesbians
• Why the Callisto story has some major issues when considered through a transgender lens
• Female homoerotic art and the male gaze
• The goddess Diana as a symbol of women’s separatist lives in literature
• This topic is discussed in one or more entries of the Lesbian Historic Motif Project here:
  • Diana and Callisto
  • Artistic representation
  • Marriage Resistance
  • Gender disguise: m>f

A transcript of this podcast is available here.

Links to the Lesbian Historic Motif Project Online

• Website: http://alpennia.com/lhmp
• Blog: http://alpennia.com/blog
• RSS: http://alpennia.com/blog/feed/
• Twitter: @LesbianMotif
• Discord: Contact Heather for an invitation to the Alpennia/LHMP Discord server
• The Lesbian Historic Motif Project Patreon

Links to Heather Online

• Website: http://alpennia.com
• Email: Heather Rose Jones
• Twitter: @heatherosejones
• Facebook: Heather Rose Jones (author page)

Book Appreciation with Liz Bourke - The Lesbian Historic Motif Podcast Episode 50

Book Appreciation with Liz Bourke

The Lesbian Historic Motif Podcast - Episode 50

In the Book Appreciation segments, our featured guest (or your host) will talk about one or more favorite books with queer female characters in a historic setting.

In this episode reviewer Liz Bourke recommends some favorite queer historical novels:

• The Covert Captain, Or, A Marriage of Equals by Jeannelle M. Ferreira
• Karen Memory by Elizabeth Bear
• Stone Mad by Elizabeth Bear
• Shaken to the Core by Jae

A transcript of this podcast may be available here. (Transcripts added when available.)

Links to the Lesbian Historic Motif Project Online

• Website: http://alpennia.com/lhmp
• Blog: http://alpennia.com/blog
• RSS: http://alpennia.com/blog/feed/
• Twitter: @LesbianMotif
• Discord: Contact Heather for an invitation to the Alpennia/LHMP Discord server
• The Lesbian Historic Motif Project Patreon

Links to Heather Online

• Website: http://alpennia.com
• Email: Heather Rose Jones
• Twitter: @heatherosejones
• Facebook: Heather Rose Jones (author page)

Links to Liz Bourke Online

• Reviews: Patreon
• Reviews: Tor.com
• Reviews: Locus Magazine
• Twitter: @hawkwing_lb
• Liz has a collection of some of her past SFF reviews which, since the time we recorded the interview, has been announced as a finalist for the Hugo Award in the Best Related Work category. Sleeping With Monsters by Liz Bourke

Interview with Alyssa Cole - The Lesbian Historic Motif Podcast Episode 49

Interview with Alyssa Cole

The Lesbian Historic Motif Podcast - Episode 49

A series of interviews with authors of historically-based fiction featuring queer women.

In this episode we talk about:

• Alyssa’s novella “That Could Be Enough” in Hamilton’s Battalion
• How Alyssa, Courtney Milan, and Rose Lerner brainstormed up the anthology
• How the musical Hamilton inspired the collection
• Writing marginalized identities in historical romance
• Researching historic New York City
• The surprising acceptance of some same-sex couples in 18th century America
• The distinction between “historical accuracy” and “historical average” in developing characters
• Alyssa’s favorite historical writers and how Ta-Nehisi Coates’ blog sent her inspiration in different directions
• Books mentioned
  • Hamilton’s Battalion by Courtney Milan, Rose Lerner, and Alyssa Cole
  • “Be Not Afraid” by Alyssa Cole in For Love & Liberty: Untold love stories of the American Revolution - the story of Andromeda’s grandparents
  • Root and Branch: African Americans in New York and East Jersey by Graham Russell Gao Hodges
  • Charity and Sylvia: A Same-Sex Marriage in Early America by Rechel Hope Cleves
  • A Princess in Theory by Alyssa Cole - a secondary character in this book is a non-binary woman who is a sapeur, a “dandy”, and who will have a f/f romance in a forthcoming book (updated: Once Ghosted Twice Shy
  • Anne of the Wild Rose Inn by Jennifer Armstrong - an early inspiration for Alyssa’s historical interests

A transcript of this podcast may be available here. (Transcripts added when available.)

Links to the Lesbian Historic Motif Project Online

• Website: http://alpennia.com/lhmp
• Blog: http://alpennia.com/blog
• RSS: http://alpennia.com/blog/feed/
• Twitter: @LesbianMotif
• Discord: Contact Heather for an invitation to the Alpennia/LHMP Discord server
• The Lesbian Historic Motif Project Patreon

Links to Heather Online

• Website: http://alpennia.com
• Email: Heather Rose Jones
• Twitter: @heatherosejones
• Facebook: Heather Rose Jones (author page)

Links to Alyssa Cole Online

• Website: Alyssa Cole
• Twitter: @AlyssaColeLit
• Facebook: Alyssa Cole

On the Shelf for April 2018 - The Lesbian Historic Motif Podcast Episode 48

On the Shelf for April 2018

The Lesbian Historic Motif Podcast - Episode 48 with Heather Rose Jones

Your monthly update on what the Lesbian Historic Motif Project has been doing.

In this episode we talk about:

• Recent and upcoming publications covered on the blog
  • Gonda, Caroline. 2006. “Lesbian Narrative in the Travels and Adventures of Mademoiselle de Richelieu” in British Journal of Eighteenth-Century Studies 29, no. 2: 191-200.
  • Epstein, Julia & Kristina Straub (eds). 1991. Body Guards : The Cultural Politics of Gender Ambiguity. Routledge, New York. ISBN 0-415-90388-2
  • Nardizzi, Vin, Stephen Guy-Bray & Will Stockton, eds. 2009. Queer Renaissance Historiography. Ashgate, Burlington VT. ISBN 978-0-7546-7608-9
• Announcing this month’s author guest, Alyssa Cole
• This month’s Book Appreciation will be by Liz Bourke
• New and forthcoming fiction
  • The Covert Captain: Or, A Marriage of Equals by Jeannelle M. Ferreira (self-published)
  • Berlin Hungers by Justine Saracen (Bold Strokes Books)
  • Murder on the Titania and Other Steam Powered Adventures by Alex Acks (Queen of Swords Press)
  • The Archer by K. Aten (Regal Crest)
• Ask Sappho: Ann Terpstra asks about research sources for lesbians and queer women in 1920s Chicago. Some suggested starting points include:
  • Encyclopedia of Chicago: Gays and Lesbians
  • Chicago Whispers: A History of LGBT Chicago before Stonewall by St. Sukie de la Croix
  • Homosexuality in the City: A Century of Research at the University of Chicago (download link)
• Call for submissions for the 2020 LHMP audio short story series. See here for details.

A transcript of this podcast is available here.

Links to the Lesbian Historic Motif Project Online

• Website: http://alpennia.com/lhmp
• Blog: http://alpennia.com/blog
• RSS: http://alpennia.com/blog/feed/
• Twitter: @LesbianMotif
• Discord: Contact Heather for an invitation to the Alpennia/LHMP Discord server
• The Lesbian Historic Motif Project Patreon

Links to Heather Online

• Website: http://alpennia.com
• Email: Heather Rose Jones
• Twitter: @heatherosejones
• Facebook: Heather Rose Jones (author page)

One Night in Saint-Martin by Catherine Lundoff - The Lesbian Historic Motif Podcast Episode 47

One Night in Saint-Martin by Catherine Lundoff

The Lesbian Historic Motif Podcast - Episode 47

The debut story in our 2018 fiction series. Written by Catherine Lundoff and narrated by Tiana Hanson.

A transcript of this podcast may be available here.

Links to the Lesbian Historic Motif Project Online

• Website: http://alpennia.com/lhmp
• Blog: http://alpennia.com/blog
• RSS: http://alpennia.com/blog/feed/
• Twitter: @LesbianMotif
• Discord: Contact Heather for an invitation to the Alpennia/LHMP Discord server
• The Lesbian Historic Motif Project Patreon

Links to Heather Online

• Website: http://alpennia.com
• Email: Heather Rose Jones
• Twitter: @heatherosejones
• Facebook: Heather Rose Jones (author page)

Links to Catherine Lundoff Online

• Website: www.catherinelundoff.net
• Twitter: @clundoff
• Queen of Swords Press

Falling in Love with Cross-Dressing Girls - The Lesbian Historic Motif Podcast Episode 46

Falling in Love with Cross-Dressing Girls

The Lesbian Historic Motif Podcast - Episode 46

An exploration of the concept of the “portal fantasy” and how it applies to historic literature involving cross-dressing as a context for same-sex desire.

In this episode we talk about

• The context of women cross-dressing in history and literature
• The literary genre of “portal fantasies” and the devices they use to connect author, reader, and story into a unified whole
• Cross-dressing plots as a type of romantic portal fantasy
• A catalog of story structures in which cross-dressing provides a context for same-sex desire

Further information about the texts and topics can be found at the following links:

• Iphis and Ianthe
• Iphis et Ianthe - Isaac de Benserade
• Yde and Olive
• Qamar al-Zaman and the Princess Boudour
• Amadis de Gaule
• Anson, John. 1974. “The Female Transvestite in Early Monasticism: The Origin and Development of a Motif” in Viator, 5: 1-32.
• Roman de Silence - Heldris de Cornouaille
• Sautman, Francesca Canadé. 2001. “What Can They Possibly Do Together? Queer Epic Performances in Tristan de Nanteuil” in Same Sex Love and Desire Among Women in the Middle Ages (ed. By Francesca Canadé Sautman & Pamela Sheingorn), Palgrave, New York.
• Orlando Furioso - Ludovico Ariosto
• For many of the plays with cross-dressing plots not listed individually, see: Walen, Denise A. 2005. Constructions of Female Homoeroticism in Early Modern Drama. New York: Palgrave MacMillan. ISBN 978-1-4039-6875-3
• Catherine Vizzani tag & podcast)
• The Travels and Adventures of Mademoiselle de Richelieu (tag & podcast)

For general discussions of female cross-dressing in literature and real life see the following:

• Bullough, Vern. 1996. “Cross Dressing and Gender Role Change in the Middle Ages” in Handbook of Medieval Sexuality, ed. Vern L. Bullough and James A. Brundage Garland Publishing, New York. ISBN 0-8153-3662-4
• Dekker, Rudolf M. and van de Pol, Lotte C. 1989. The Tradition of Female Transvestism in Early Modern Europe. Macmillan, London. ISBN 0-333-41253-2
• Donoghue, Emma. 1995. Passions Between Women. Harper Perennial, New York. ISBN 0-06-017261-4
• Donoghue, Emma. 2010. Inseparable: Desire Between Women in Literature. Alfred A. Knopf, New York. ISBN 978-0-307-27094-8
• Hotchkiss, Valerie R. 1996. Clothes Make the Man: Female Cross Dressing in Medieval Europe. Garland Publishing, Inc., New York. ISBN 0-8153-3771-x

A transcript of this podcast is available here.

Links to the Lesbian Historic Motif Project Online

• Website: http://alpennia.com/lhmp
• Blog: http://alpennia.com/blog
• RSS: http://alpennia.com/blog/feed/
• Twitter: @LesbianMotif
• Discord: Contact Heather for an invitation to the Alpennia/LHMP Discord server
• The Lesbian Historic Motif Project Patreon

Links to Heather Online

• Website: http://alpennia.com
• Email: Heather Rose Jones
• Twitter: @heatherosejones
• Facebook: Heather Rose Jones (author page)