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A show about queer women in history and historic literature, plus coverage of the field of sapphic historical fiction. Content note: May include discussions of sex within an academic context.
Episodes
Friday Sep 25, 2020
Friday Sep 25, 2020
The Ladies of Llangollen
The Lesbian Historic Motif Podcast - Episode 59
Most people interested in lesbian history know the basic story of Eleanor Butler and Sarah Ponsonby, known as the Ladies of Llangollen. I take on their story by presenting it through extended quotations from their own writings, from accounts of people who met them, and from poetry written in their honor.
In this episode we talk about:
- Why it took me so long to get to this topic, and why The Ladies hold a special place in my heart
- Letters from Sarah Ponsonby’s relatives on the occasion of her elopement
- Excerpts from Eleanor Butler’s journal
- “Llangollen Vale” by Anna Seward
- A sonnet dedicated to Butler and Ponsonby by William Wordsworth
- Description of visits, from Eleanor Butler’s journal
- Entries from Anne Lister’s diaries relating to her trip to Wales and her visit with Sarah Ponsonby
- A newspaper article about Butler and Ponsonby that inspired them to consider a lawsuit
- Why I consider The Ladies of Llangollen to be lesbian icons
Some resources
- Stuff you Missed in History Class: Ladies of Llangollen May 2017
- Wikipedia: Ladies of Llangollen
- Brideoake, Fiona. 2004. “’Extraordinary Female Affection’: The Ladies of Llangollen and the Endurance of Queer Community” in Romanticism on the Net. Issue36–37, November, 2004, February, 2005.
- Lesbians of North Wales through the Centuries
Sources for the texts
- Anna Seward’s “Llangollen Vale” text courtesy of The 18th Century Poetry Archive
- William Wordsworth’s “To the Lady Eleanor Butler and the Honorable Miss Ponsonby” text courtesy of Bartleby.com
- Anne Lister’s diary entries adapted from I Know my Own Heart edited by Helena Whitbread (New York University Press, New York. 1992)
This topic is discussed in one or more entries of the Lesbian Historic Motif Project here:
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)
Friday Sep 25, 2020
Friday Sep 25, 2020
Book Appreciation with Lise MacTague
The Lesbian Historic Motif Podcast - Episode 58
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.
In this episode Lise MacTague recommends some favorite queer historical novels:
- Alpennia Series by Heather Rose Jones
- Romancing the Inventor by Gail Carriger
- See also Carriger’s other works
- Branded Ann by Merry Shannon
- Raven, Fire, and Ice by Nita Round
- Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke (no lesbian content)
- The Temeraire Series by Naomi Novik (no lesbian content)
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 Lise MacTague Online
- Website: https://lisemactague.com
- Twitter: @LiseMacTague
- Facebook: Lise MacTague
- Goodreads: Lise MacTague at Goodreads
- Podcast: Lez Geek Out (link is no longer valid)
Friday Sep 25, 2020
Friday Sep 25, 2020
Interview with Lise MacTague
The Lesbian Historic Motif Podcast - Episode 57
A series of interviews with authors of historically-based fiction featuring queer women.
In this episode we talk about:
- The world-building of Demon in the Machine
- The Industrial Revolution and bargains with the devil
- Why Lise did not become a medieval historian and what sparked her interest in historical settings
- Steampunk inspirations
- Researching demons and steam-powered carriages
- Books mentioned
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 Lise MacTague Online
- Website: https://lisemactague.com
- Twitter: @LiseMacTague
- Facebook: Lise MacTague
- Goodreads: Lise MacTague at Goodreads
- Podcast: Lez Geek Out (link is no longer valid)
Friday Sep 25, 2020
Friday Sep 25, 2020
On the Shelf for June 2018
The Lesbian Historic Motif Podcast - Episode 56 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
- Several articles focusing on cross-dressing, especially in medieval Arabic culture
- Some primary source texts from the 16th and 17th centuries
- A special feature on queer culture in Wales for LHMP publication #200
- Announcing this month’s author guest, Lise MacTague
- New and forthcoming fiction
- Ask Sappho: Sophie Lennox asks “When did ‘coming out’ become a thing?”
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)
Thursday Sep 24, 2020
Thursday Sep 24, 2020
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)
Thursday Sep 24, 2020
Thursday Sep 24, 2020
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
Thursday Sep 24, 2020
Thursday Sep 24, 2020
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
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
Thursday Sep 24, 2020
Thursday Sep 24, 2020
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
- 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)
Wednesday Sep 23, 2020
Wednesday Sep 23, 2020
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:
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)
Wednesday Sep 23, 2020
Wednesday Sep 23, 2020
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