To mark this year\u2019s LGBTQ+ History Month, we have put together a list of some literary texts (and a few films), which we think will raise awareness about LGBTQ + issues and experiences.<\/p>\n
A big thanks also goes to the students taking EN338: Right\/Write to the World: Displacement, Social Movements, Political Action<\/a>, convened by Bahriye Kemal. They have compiled an excellent list of LGBTQ+ further reading materials, some of which, as you can see, I featured in this blog. You can find their full-list at the bottom of the blog. Many thanks to Bahriye for letting me have access to the list and comments.<\/p>\n We start today’s post with a suggestion from Dr Michael Falk<\/a>:<\/p>\n Such is Life<\/i>\u00a0is a magnificent book. It turns over the raw wounds of Australia\u2019s colonial past, and Australia\u2019s cult of virile masculinity. And it shows just why queerness is so often considered a crucial component of the best writing.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Sarah Waters, Tipping the Velvet<\/i> (Virago 1998)<\/b><\/p>\n Tipping the Velvet<\/i><\/a> is the debut novel by Sarah Waters, one of the most notable alumni of the School of English here at Kent. It is a daring neo-Victorian coming-of-age lesbian drama, which experiments with sexuality and its boundaries within social acceptability. The novel, to quote the author<\/a>, is \u2018the tale of a Victorian oyster girl who loses her heart to a male impersonator, becomes her partner in bed and on the music hall stage, and then, cruelly abandoned, has a spell as a cross-dressed Piccadilly prostitute and the sexual plaything of a rich older woman before finding true love and redemption with an East End socialist\u2019. It is taught on EN713: The New Woman:1880-1920<\/a>, convened by Dr Sara Lyons.<\/p>\n Virginia Woolf, Orlando: A Biography<\/em><\/strong> (Hogarth Press 1928)<\/strong> James Baldwin, Giovanni\u2019s Room<\/em> (Dial Press 1956)<\/strong> Please visit the LGBT+ Staff Network website<\/a> to read Dr Declan Gilmore-Kavanagh\u2019s blog on Giovanni\u2019s Room<\/em>.<\/p>\n Audre Lorde, The Cancer Journals<\/em> (Aunt Lute Books 1980) and Sister Outsider<\/em> (Crossing Press 1984) <\/strong> The Cancer Journals<\/em>\u00a0<\/a>(1980) was the first work to explore the impact of breast cancer on a black feminist lesbian\u2019s life. Lorde was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1978 and had a mastectomy. Moving between private experience and political analysis, this lyrical manifesto addresses several topics including prosthesis, the politics of appearance, the power dynamics of the patient-doctor relationship, feminist and social struggle,\u00a0and the function of cancer in a profit economy. It is taught in the MA module EN900: Illness and Disability in American Culture<\/a> convened by Dr Stella Bolaki.<\/p>\n Please visit the LGBT+ Staff Network website<\/a> to read Stella\u2019s blog on Audre Lorde.<\/p>\n Helen Macdonald, H is for Hawk<\/em> (Jonathan Cape 2014) <\/strong> Moonlight<\/em><\/strong> (dir. Barry Jenkins\u00a0 2016)<\/strong> Eugene Lee Yang, \u2018I\u2019m Gay\u2019 (2019)<\/strong> A full list of EN338 students\u2019 suggestion for LGBTQ+ History Month. <\/strong> Stephanie Ahn, Harrietta Lee<\/em> series<\/a> (2018- )<\/p>\n Alison Bechdel, Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic<\/em><\/a> (Houghton Mifflin 2006)<\/p>\n James Baldwin, Giovanni\u2019s Room<\/em> (Dial Press 1956)<\/p>\n Charlie Craggs, To My Trans Sisters<\/em><\/a> (Jessica Kingsley Publishers 2017)<\/p>\n Sara Collins, The Confessions of Frankie Langton<\/em><\/a> (Viking 2019)<\/p>\n Ellen Craft and William Craft, Running a Thousand Miles for Freedom: Or, The Escape of William and Ellen Craft from Slavery (Dodo Press, 2009)<\/p>\n Leslie Feinberg, Stone Butch Blues<\/em><\/a> (Firebrand Books 1993)<\/p>\n Barry Jenkins, Moonlight <\/em>(2016)<\/p>\n Jackie Kay, Trumpet<\/em><\/a> (Picador 1998)<\/p>\n Julia Kaye, Up and Out<\/em><\/a> (2016 – )<\/p>\n Alison Kafer, Feminist, Queer, Crip<\/em><\/a> (Indiana University Press 2013)<\/p>\n Jennie Livingsto (dir.), Paris Is Burning<\/em><\/a> (1990)<\/p>\n Audre Lorde, Sister Outsider<\/em> (Crossing Press 1984)<\/p>\n Kabi Nagata, My Lesbian Experience With Loneliness<\/em><\/a> (Seven Seas Entertainment, 2017)<\/p>\n Tamsyn Muir, Gideon the Ninth<\/em><\/a> (Tor.com 2019) and its sequels<\/p>\n Maggie Nelson, The Argonauts<\/em> (Graywolf Press 2015)<\/p>\n Nat Raha, of sirens, body and faultlines<\/em><\/a> (Boiler House Press 2018)<\/p>\n Salman Toor<\/a>\u2019s artworks on queerness<\/p>\n Wong Kar Wai (dir), Happy Together<\/em><\/a> (1997)<\/p>\n Joseph Furphy, Such is Life<\/em><\/a> (University of Chicago Press 1903)<\/p>\n Sarah Waters, Tipping the Velvet<\/em> (Virago 1998)<\/p>\n Jeanette Winterson, Written on the Body<\/em><\/a> (Cape 1992)<\/p>\n Eugene Lee Yang, \u2018I\u2019m Gay\u2019 (2019)<\/p>\n Read Part One<\/a> and Part Two<\/a><\/p>\n We hoped you enjoyed these recommendations. For more information about English at Kent, please visit the School of English page<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\nOnce described by Nigel Nicolson as the \u2018longest and most charming love letter in literature\u2019, Orlando: A Biography<\/em><\/a> is famously inspired by Virginia Woolf\u2019s relationship with Vita Sackville-West. At the heart of the book is the protagonist’s metamorphosis from man to woman, though over the course of the four centuries of Orlando’s life the narrative explores how sexual identities are fluid and constructed rather than fixed and innate. The book is taught on EN708 Virginia Woolf<\/a>, convened and taught by Dr Derek Ryan.<\/p>\n
\nGiovanni\u2019s Room<\/em><\/a> is the second novel by James Baldwin, the African American writer and civil activist. Set in 1950s Paris, it deals with a young American man\u2019s \u2018forbidden love\u2019 for an Italian bartender whom he met while waiting for his fianc\u00e9e to return from vacation. This is the first African American novel openly to explore queer desire and, featuring all white characters, it is a reflection on racial and national identities. I received multiple recommendations for the novel, all of which commented on the powerful and poetic nature of its writing.<\/p>\n
\nBlack feminist lesbian writer and activist Audre Lorde (1934-1992) challenged the movements she was involved in \u2013 the Women\u2019s movement, the Civil Rights movement, and the Gay and Lesbian movement \u2013 to adopt more intersectional and inclusive approaches.\u00a0Her work is taught across our undergraduate and postgraduate curriculum in the School of English. Her powerful speeches and essays \u2018The Master\u2019s Tools Will Never Dismantle the Master\u2019s House\u2019, \u2018Uses of the Erotic: The Erotic as Power\u2019 and \u2018The Transformation of Silence into Language and Action\u2019 (from Lorde\u2019s\u00a0Sister Outsider<\/em>\u00a0<\/a>and\u00a0The Cancer Journals<\/em>) are taught in the UG modules EN342: American Power, American Protest<\/a>, convened by Dr Jill Caddell and EN344: Black Girl Magic: Contemporary Feminisms<\/a>, convened by Dr Claire Hurley.<\/p>\n
\nMacdonald\u2019s award-winning memoir<\/a>, which recounts her efforts to train a female goshawk Mabel, is curiously woven with the story of the \u2018sadistic homosexual\u2019 writer T. H. White, and his troubled relationship with the male goshawk he tried but failed to train. Macdonald\u2019s fascination with White and Mabel\u2019s hawkish desire and her longing to form interspecies ties with the bird makes H is for Hawk an interesting book to explore the intersections<\/a> between animal studies and queer \/trans studies. The book is taught on EN709 Animals, Humans, Writing<\/a>, convened by Dr Kaori Nagai.<\/p>\n
\nMoonlight<\/em> is a coming-of-age drama of a young African-American man navigating through his masculinity and (somewhat closeted) homosexuality. This critically acclaimed and multi-award winning film is based on In Moonlight Black Boys Look Blue<\/em>, the America playwright Tarell Alvin McCraney\u2019s unpublished semi-autobiographical play. Click here<\/a> to watch the trailer.<\/p>\n
\n\u2018I\u2019m Gay\u2019<\/a> is a 5-minute artistic piece written, directed, and choreographed by the South-Korean filmmaker, actor and activist Eugene Lee Yang. Eugene was mostly known as an entertainer and creator on YouTube\u2019s (specifically Buzzfeed\u2019s) Try Guys. In June 2019 he released this creative film to not only come out publicly as a gay man, but also to showcase the beauty and struggles of coming to terms with identifying as LGBTQIA+. The piece has been extremely impactful for the LGBTQIA+ community and informative to those who are not.<\/p>\n
\nThanks again to the EN338 students, especially Rebecca Copsey, Kara Bunting, Mirianne Noba, Thipthara Yosrungrueng, Rochelle Mann, Niharika Gurung for your suggestions and comments. For further queries on the list, please contact Dr Bahriye Kemal [b.kemal@kent.ac.uk<\/a> ]<\/p>\n