Journal articles on the topic 'LGBTQ novels'

Over the past few years, the LGBTQ+ community has reached exceptional milestones, but yet, they need to achieve more to find and establish their place in this world. A similar aspect lies with Graphic novels that they need to find and establish their place in the vast field of literature, though they are recently being printed and produced in massive numbers around the world. There seems to be no perfect medium than the Graphic Novels to voice the mental agonies faced by the LGBTQ+ community and its people. With the combination of the LGBTQ+ community and the graphic novels, this paper aims to act as an intermediary to convey the trouble and pain the LGBTQ+ community has to undergo, to the reading public. The analysis is performed upon My Lesbian Experience with Loneliness (2017) authored by Kabi Nagata, a Graphic Novel that comes under the gradually developing Queer Graphic Novels. The central idea is to point out the importance of keeping the mental health of the LGBTQ+ people intact and providing social support like that provided to any other individual in this supposedly brilliant and advanced world. A much broader picture of social issues concerning the LGBTQ+ community is illustrated and discussed through the analysis of the Graphic Novel and thereby stating its importance among the humankind and economy. Through this, the paper provides a better understanding by dwelling deeper into the psyche of LGBTQ+ individual and their struggles.

Lack of teacher knowledge about and sensitivity to the needs of LGBTQ youth are a significant contributing factor to LGBTQ students’ ongoing discomfort and disengagement in schools. Yet teachers continue to be under- or uninformed. For English teachers, specifically, this lack of knowledge often means a lack of familiarity with the growing body of LGBTQ literature, including children’s, middle level, and young adult LGBTQ literature, available to them and their students. The author presents several strategies and resources for teachers to use gender and queer theory as a lens of analysis to understand how representations of adolescence, gender, sexual identity, and sexual orientation in a collection of LGBTQ young adult novels geared toward specific sensitivities they may encounter in their classrooms.

This study examines the representation of queer identities in two popular young adult novels, “Summer of Salt” and Sometime in Summer, both authored by Katrina Leno. Utilising a queer theoretical framework, the analysis explores the use of coming-of-age narratives and elements of magical realism to create complex queer characters, mainly focusing on Felicity and Julep from Summer of Salt and Aiden from Sometime in Summer. The nuanced and complex experiences of these characters, as portrayed by Leno, are closely examined, with a particular focus on using magical realism as a genre to explore alternative realities and challenge established norms. The significance of young adult literature in reflecting and influencing the awareness of LGBTQ+ adolescents is also explored, with recognition of the decisive role that novels like these can play in cultivating a deeper understanding and acceptance of the LGBTQ+ community. The broader implications of Leno's work are analysed, emphasising its literary and cultural significance. The novels are placed within the context of the queer literary tradition and social advocacy, underscoring the importance of including diverse and authentic queer voices in young adult literature. Overall, this study highlights the significance of Leno's work in the ongoing discussion surrounding LGBTQ+ presence in the young adult genre, underscoring the need for continued efforts to promote understanding and acceptance of the diverse experiences of queer individuals.

The format and content of LGBTQ graphic novels make them effective pedagogical tools for engaging students in critical discussions about gender and sexuality. By using two exemplar texts, the authors offer teachers a vocabulary and method for engaging in these conversations.

This book should be required reading for anyone working with teens. Cart and Jenkins have compiled a list of LGBTQ-themed books comprising fiction, nonfiction, graphic novels, and professional resources. Both the fiction and graphic novel sections include codes to indicate whether the book’s themes include “homosexual visibility,” “gay assimilation,” and/or “queer consciousness.” Additional information about the meaning and use of these codes is presented in the appendix.

This paper studies the portrayal of queerness in Shyam Selvadurai’s novels, Funny Boy and Swimming in the Monsoon Sea, focusing on the theme of homosexuality and character development. Further, the study delves into the significance of mother figures and female relationships in their lives, as well as their love for literature and art, which serves as a platform for introspection and self-expression. Drawing upon the method of textual analysis, the research examines the external and internal confinement experienced by the protagonists and their emotional journeys as they grapple with their identities. It explores how societal norms, family expectations, and internal struggles contribute to their need to hide their true selves. The paper also investigates the characters’ evolution from childhood to maturity, as they learn to accept and embrace their sexual orientation. Additionally, the research addresses the novels’ broader context, considering the historical and cultural setting of Sri Lanka in the 1980s. It examines the societal and familial pressures faced by closeted individuals during that time, shedding light on the challenges and emotional turmoil experienced by LGBTQ+ individuals. The analysis further reflects on the impact of the novels on readers and the significance of LGBTQ+ representation in literature. It underscores the importance of empathy, understanding, and acceptance in nurturing an inclusive and diverse literary landscape. The research contributes to a deeper comprehension of the complexities of queerness and self-acceptance in a conservative society.

The past decade has seen the Indian graphic novel undergo a transformation, turning from a niche market into a vibrant and diverse form of storytelling. The study aims to analyze LGBTQ+ representation in Kari and place it in the overall phenomenon of Indian graphic novels. The methodology included the major theoretical concepts used to analyze the graphic novel and a blend of them: queer theory – “which involves views on this construction by examining the normalization of sexuality”; thematic analysis – a “means of conceptually organizing and structuring the narrative data obtained through interviews. It involves stripping away the details and unique aspects of the text of its read-down meaning”; and analysis of author’s interviews and reviews. The study attempts to summarize findings into gender, sexuality, and sexuality in the Indian context. The paper is an understanding of Indian culture and the changing discourse around LGBTQ+ rights and representation. The novel gives a voice to a narrative that has long been silent – the life of a lesbian woman in a conservative society – by ending the invisibility that surrounds their lives through in a traditional poetic narrative.

Abstract Hop-Çiki-Yaya Polisiyesi is a Turkish crime novel series by Mehmet Murat Somer that appeared between 2003 and 2004. The series is set in the trans world of Istanbul, and the hero/heroine is a gender-nonbinary sleuth. The present essay explores the paradox at the heart of this series, which on the one hand offers an affirmative portrait of a sex-positive and sociopolitically mobile trans world, and on the other hand exposes the reality of trans murders and the necropolitics as well as bare life politics in practice against the trans community in Turkey. The publication of these novels coincided with the emergence of an LGBTQ+ politics in Turkey but also with the rise to power of the Islamist Adalet ve Kalkınma Partisi (Justice and Development Party). Drawing on crime fiction theories, trans studies, and recent Turkish history, this essay draws out the significance of this series and its place in the trajectory of LGBTQ+ life in Turkey.

Looking backwards, discussions around sexual orientation and sexual identity have been noticeably absent at the middle grades. As a result, middle grade teachers may find it difficult to know how to effectively select age-appropriate materials that include LGBTQ issues and content. To move the field forward, the authors specifically highlight four such novels: The Skull of Truth (Coville, 2007), From the Notebooks of Melanin Sun (Woodson, 1995), So Hard to Say (Sanchez, 2004), and Totally Joe (Howe, 2005). They then connect these books to broader topics that could be used in a variety of instructional settings.

Abstract This essay establishes parallels between sexual diversity and the neoliberal state, ultimately to demonstrate how queer and trans Guatemalans embody public urban space where they have been ostracized in the postwar period. The essay begins by situating queerness in the context of recent Latin American cultural criticism to subsequently provide a detailed genealogy of the mutual imbrications of queerness and neoliberalism in postwar Guatemala. Ultimately, I contend, emergent discourses of LGBTQ+ subjectivities as depicted in the novels Ruido de fondo (2003) and Días amarillos (2009) by Javier Payeras elucidate how queer and trans Guatemalans navigate the fragmented cityscape.

This paper set out to interrogate Sexual Orientation Identity in select African and African American novels, using the Queer theory. Some heterosexual writers inadvertently dwell on queer relationships in their works. Toni Morrison in both The Bluest Eye and Beloved portrayed bestiality/zoophillia, phytophilliac or dendraphilliac, Spectorphilli, incest, rape/molestation, masturbation, polyamorous relationships, homoerotic, homosocial, and heterosexuality. Whereas, Damon Gulet’s In a Strange Room and Sello Duiker’s Thirteen Cents depicted lesbianism, homosexuality and bisexuality. With the likes of Geraldine in Morrison’s The Bluest Eye and Mr Lebowitz in Duiker’s Thirteen Cents, I agree with Tyson on biological essentialism, that the rest of the population is naturally heterosexual. I also agree with other critics that all human beings have the potential for sexual activity that does not fit into heterosexual framework. I share the opinion of social constructionism; that LGBTQ sexuality and heterosexuality are products of social, not biological forces; our societies are fast losing their mores, hence these evil practices. Since patriarchy is the law, no stiff penalty is effected on their wide spread jeopardizing habits. Queerness is a generational destroyer of both moral and humanity. This paper is emphatic that stiff penalties be brought on the practitioners of psychology of peadophile.

Alice Oseman, the author of an LGBTQ+ young adult graphic novel that focuses on the lives and romance of two boys, has made a comment that caused some controversy on the internet. This comment by Oseman illustrates a somewhat common view held by Western society toward East Asian Boys Love (BL) genre. That is: BL novels and webcomics being highly sexual, fetish works with little literary value. This research note tries to analyze what could be the reason behind this commonly held view by the West, illustrated by Oseman’s comment through analyzing BL genre, Oseman’s work Heartstopper, the differences and tendencies within the works from East Asia, China specifically, and the West.

While the increasing visibility of LGBTQ+ identities in recent young adult fiction has received much critical attention, such novels that contain the added complex distinction of adolescent male mental illness and recovery represent an underexamined area. This article produces readings of two recent young adult texts that feature gay male protagonists who experience mental illness: Adam Silvera’s More Happy Than Not (2015) and John Corey Whaley’s Highly Illogical Behaviour (2016). It investigates how the texts’ embedded heteronormative scripts, relationships between the symptoms and the self, and frameworks of health-related shame are fraught with anxieties, producing a complex double movement that simultaneously establishes and undermines gay males’ control over their mental illnesses and recovery trajectories to move the characters between spaces of empowerment and marginalization.

Children’s literature contains shared meanings that not only reflect societal norms, but also reinstate and reconstitute societal norms. This study used critical content analysis methods grounded in place theory to analyze the textual constructions of rurality in 52 contemporary, middle grade, realistic fiction novels set in US rural places. Findings revealed five salient themes, three of which are discussed in this article: systems work to keep rural people in poverty; rural people have deep connections to place; and rural people have diverse, intersectional identities. While some middle grade books in the sample move toward challenging stereotypes of rural places as monolithic (e.g., White-majority, socially conservative) by including nuanced portrayals of some characters of color, LGBTQ+ characters, and characters with disabilities, others rely on simplistic and otherwise problematic representations, using familiar tropes about rural people that suggest racial and cultural homogeneity privileging Whiteness and making invisible BIPOC in rural communities. Given the powerful impact of stories on identity formation and sensemaking, this study analyzes textual representations of rural people and places in books for middle grade readers.

This paper undertakes to read the queered sexualities and identities in Toni Morrison’s Beloved, The Bluest Eye, Damon Galgut’sIn a Strange Room and Sello Duicker’s Thirteen Cents from the critical lenses of a puritan Christian. The study, thus, deploys the Reader-Response and Queer theories as its theoretical frameworks. The study is motivated by the growing ideological spaces allotted to African queer studies; and aims to join the discussion by offering a puritan’s angle to the African queer arguments. Among the specific LGBTQ identities and sexualities interrogated in the paper include bestiality/zoophillia, phytophilliac or dendraphilliac, Spectorphilli, incest, rape/molestation, masturbation, polyamorous relationship, homoerotic, homosocial, and heterosexuality. These identities and sexualities are read or interpreted based on laid down Bible principles not necessarily to generate homophobic sentiments but rather to query the moral and didactic underpinnings of these practices in the light of societal mores, stability and progress of the human race, as problematised in the selected texts. The reading reveals that certain queer practices run counter to extant Bible precepts and do not make for a harmonious world order as they are seen to be products of dysfunctional societal institutions. Thus, they are predicated on exploitation, oppression, destruction and unequal, unbalanced and unnatural relationships.

A Review of: Curry, A. (2005). If I ask, will they answer? Evaluating public library reference service to gay and lesbian youth. Reference & User Services Quarterly, 45(1), 65-75. Retrieved from https://www.jstor.org/journal/refuseserq Abstract Objective - To assess the quality of service provided by reference staff in public libraries when presented with a request for LGBTQ information by a young person. Design - Unobtrusive observation without informed consent. Setting - Public library branches in the greater Vancouver area, British Columbia, Canada. Subjects - Reference librarians. Methods - A 19-year-old posing as a high school student approached reference desk staff at 20 public library branches. The student proxy, “Angela”, was instructed to ask for books on forming a gay-straight alliance at her school and, if there was a full reference interview, to also ask for recommendations of novels that the group might read. She recorded the reactions, both verbal and nonverbal, using Reference and User Services Association guidelines as a template. Library administrators were aware of the potential visits and permitted the research, but the reference desk staff were not aware of a potential visit by the student proxy. The researcher claimed that her method, while deceptive, was necessary to obtain authentic reactions from the library staff. Main Results - Most reference librarians approached by Angela made adequate attempts to assist her, although a few library staff reacted negatively to her query. Half of the librarians reacted positively to the patron’s request, with most of the others providing neutral responses. Very few of the librarians actually taught the patron how to use the library’s catalog to search for materials, and most of the librarians were unable to find appropriate materials due to not knowing the appropriate search terms. Only three library staff showed overt disapproval of the search topic, such as frowning or rushing to finish the reference interview quickly, with most remaining objective or supportive. Because of the service she received, Angela stated that eight of the 20 libraries were welcoming enough that she thought she would return. Conclusion - The wide range of responses received by Angela indicated that there was room for improvement in educating public library staff on gay and lesbian issues and materials, especially for gay and lesbian youth.

This special collection of Health Promotion Practice introduces critical narrative intervention (CNI) as a key theoretical framing for an asset-based, narrative, and participatory approach to promoting health and addressing social inequality. Innovative digital and visual methodologies highlighted in this special collection—comics and graphic novels, cellphilms and other participatory film, story booths, digital storytelling, and photovoice—are changing the way critical public health researchers and practitioners forge new knowledge, creating new possibilities for interdisciplinary and activist-based inquiry. Public health research and engagement efforts that critically contend with historically repressive structures and intervene through narrative and participatory processes to enact change with and for disenfranchised communities are long overdue. This special collection showcases six CNI projects that promote equity and justice in the context of LGBTQ, nonbinary, and other gender-diverse young people; people who inject drugs living with hepatitis C virus; young women who trade sex; undocumented and formerly undocumented immigrants; and people living with HIV/AIDS. It is our intent that this collection of exemplars can serve as a guidepost for practitioners and researchers interested in expanding the scope of critical public health praxis. Individually and collectively, the special collection illustrates how CNI can create space for the increased representation of historically silenced populations, redress stigma, and provoke important questions to guide a new era of health equity research.

According to the American Library Association, book censorship is on the rise. While many censored books are adolescent novels, some titles for younger children are challenged as well. Books dealing with difficult social issues have been targets for censors historically, but recent attacks have focused on books portraying members of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, questioning, and other sexual identities (LGBTQ+) community. The goal of this qualitative study was to build prospective teachers’ (PTs’) knowledge of censorship while also providing an opportunity for them to take a sociopolitical stance. Students in a children’s literature course read source materials and reacted by creating a transmediation that used some form of art. Lenses for data analysis included qualitative research, critical discourse analysis, and visual discourse analysis. The first major theme focused on freedom and democracy and the threat censorship poses. Within this category, two subthemes were identified: (1) children having freedom to learn about real-world issues and (2) children having freedom to read books that meet their personal needs. A second major theme focused on how PTs thought people should respond to censorship. Responses expressing fear and/or confusion about censorship were coded as demonstrating a teacher dilemma, while examples showing a challenge to censorship were coded as demonstrating resistance. Findings indicate that PTs were shocked by what they learned about censorship, and many of them engaged in culture jamming, which involves using the arts to challenge oppressive systems. Many used art to critique censorship and advocate for children’s rights. This study challenges the common cultural assumption that teaching is an apolitical or neutral activity.

LGBTIQ has become a controversial topic concerning ones sexual preference over the past few years in Indonesia. Indonesian sexuality will always intersect with the norms, religious values and the state laws. Therefore, this phenomenon is socially binding as it restricts the identity construction of differing sexual preferences in Indonesia. The issue about sexuality particularly LGBTIQ is addressed in several Indonesian literature, given the significant and notable increase in Indonesian novels with LGBTIQ themes since 2000s. Taking the novels of Ayu Utamis Saman and Djenar Mahesa Ayus Nayla as the objects of investigation, this study examines (1) how Bourdieusian symbolic violence is being questioned in the novels (2) how these novels also challenge the hetero-normativity in Indonesia. The study reveals the symbolic violence towards the lesbian characters in the selected novels through the process of normalisation. However, by raising the issues of lesbianism, the novels and their circulation can somehow be seen as a form of resistance towards the Indonesian homophobic society.Keywords: symbolic violence, Indonesian novels, lesbianism, heteronormativity

James Baldwin was a novelist and social critic from the United States of America. He was an illegitimate black child. With his works, however, he became a well-known writer in bisexual and LGBT African American literature. Go Tell It on the Mountain, Another Country, Giovanni’s Room, Tell Me How Long the Train Been Gone, Just Above My Head, and If Beale Street Could Talk are among Baldwin’s best-known works. This research article aims to demonstrate how homosexuality is shown in James Baldwin’s works. In the first novel, Baldwin carefully investigated and camouflaged the homosexual issue through John, who was searching for his identity, whereas homosexuality was clearly presented in Giovanni’s Room. Because of the success of Giovanni’s Room as a gay and white novel, Baldwin decided to make homosexuality the central focus of his succeeding works. As a result, Baldwin paved the way for the next generation of homosexual authors to research and discusses LGBT themes in his writings. Journal of University of Shanghai for Science and Technology ISSN: 1007-6735 Volume

One of the LGBTQ people’s greatest hurdles in China can be traced back to their lack of visibility in Chinese media, alongside negatively biased portrayals. This brief article explores these concepts in a succinct manner, through the analysis of extant literature, as to explain what this lack of visibility and bias actually entail. It is also unavoidable to delve into how revolutionary the widespread use of the internet has been on the reconfiguration of these matters, as it allowed for unprecedented agency in content creation. LGBTQ people have been experiencing a period of empowerment thanks to social media, and this is yet another tool through which visibility and representation are being built. Keywords: Queer Studies; Chinese LGBTQ; tongzhi; media; Queer Studies in Asia; Visibility; Representation

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to investigate the needs of potential end-users of a database dedicated to Swedish lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and intersex (LGBTQI) literature (e.g. prose, poetry, drama, graphic novels/comics, and illustrated books), in order to inform the development of a database, search interface functionalities, and an LGBTQI thesaurus for fiction.Design/methodology/approachA web questionnaire was distributed in autumn 2021 to potential end-users. The questions covered people's reasons for reading LGBTQI fiction, ways of finding LGBTQI fiction, experience of searching for LGBTQI fiction, usual search elements applied, latest search for LGBTQI fiction, desired subjects to search for, and ideal search functionalities.FindingsThe 101 completed questionnaires showed that most respondents found relevant literature through social media or friends and that most obtained copies of literature from a library. Regarding desirable search functionalities, most respondents would like to see suggestions for related terms to support broader search results (i.e. higher recall). Many also wanted search support that would enable retrieving more specific results based on narrower terms when too many results are retrieved (i.e. higher precision). Over half would also appreciate the option to browse by hierarchically arranged subjects.Originality/valueThis study is the first to show how readers of LGBTQI fiction in Sweden search for and obtain relevant literature. The authors have identified end-user needs that can inform the development of a new database and a thesaurus dedicated to LGBTQI fiction.

La obra militante de Maryse Condé aborda la sexualidad humana en su pluralidad, presentándonos personajes de diversas identidades sexuales que deben encontrar su camino en una sociedad patriarcal y hetero-normada. La elección del tema de la homosexualidad, que está particularmente presente en algunas de sus novelas, forma parte de la voluntad de liberar la literatura francófona del Caribe de todos sus tabúes. Este estudio propone analizar las diferentes actitudes de los personajes LGBT en el universo condeano en relación con su orientación sexual. Al dar voz a estas minorías, la autora aborda el tema de la igualdad de derechos. Maryse Condé’s activist work addresses human sexuality in its plurality, presenting us with characters of diverse sexual identities who must find their way in a patriarchal and heterogeneous society. The choice of the subject of homosexuality, which is particularly present in some of her novels, stems from this desire to free French-language Caribbean literature from all its taboos. This study aims to analyze the different attitudes of LGBT characters in the Condean universe in relation to their sexual orientation, which is considered so deviant in the West Indies that it becomes unspeakable. By giving a voice to these minorities who have been ignored, the author touches on the issue of equal rights. L’œuvre militante de Maryse Condé aborde la sexualité humaine dans sa pluralité, nous présentant des personnages aux identités sexuelles diverses, qui doivent se frayer un chemin dans une société patriarcale et hétéronormée. Le choix du sujet de l’homosexualité, particulièrement présent dans certains de ses romans, relève de cette volonté d’affranchir la littérature francophone caribéenne de tous ses tabous. Cette étude se propose d’analyser les différentes attitudes des personnages LGBT de l’univers condéen en rapport à leur orientation sexuelle considérée si déviante dans les Antilles qu’elle en devient indicible. En donnant la voix à ces minorités passées sous silence, l’auteure touche à la question de l’égalité des droits qui lui tient à cœur.

This paper discusses the journey of finding sexual identity in the novel Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe. The analysis focuses on the effort of finding the sexual identity. The struggles before and after coming out are represented in the novel, as well as the critical position of the author. Stuart Hall's representation theory was used as a qualitative approach to analysis. The data of this study were obtained from words, phrases and sentences related to the phenomenon of gay and trans-gender in the selected novels. People are still uncomfortable with the behavior of the LGBT group, so it causes violence against groups associated with them. When the protagonist admits to being gay, he is abused and discriminated against by others, like in the novel. By relating the problem in the story to the author's biography and the struggle to establish his own sexual identity, the topic of sexual identity seems crucial to address as a part of this social phenomenon. This research was conducted as an initial research on the LGBT group, which is expected to be useful for future research.

Desde la redada a Stonewall Inn en junio de 1969 hasta la actualidad, el colectivo LGBT ha sufrido muchos cambios desde un punto de vista social; adquiriendo más derechos conforme ha avanzado el tiempo. Sin embargo, el tema de la representación en el cine, televisión y literatura es aún un asunto en el que los colectivos LGBT siguen haciendo mucho hincapié y en el que, aunque se ha avanzado, algunos creen que no tanto como se debería. Este trabajo explora la representación de los personajes homosexuales y bisexuales masculinos en las novelas juveniles de temática fantástica, especialmente en relación con la sociedad ficticia en la que se desarrollan y cómo esta influye en su formación como sujetos. Todo esto teniendo como base la teoría queer y en el marco de la literatura juvenil, orientada a un público adolescente en pleno desarrollo de su propia sexualidad.

¿Quién fue Augusto D’Halmar (1882-1950) y cuál fue su legado a las letras chilenas e hispanoamericanas? A cien años de la primera publicación de Pasión y muerte del cura Deusto, la edición crítica de esta novela propone una lectura actual de dicha obra y, a través del rescate de diversos escritos críticos y académicos (Molloy, Alone, entre otros), instala al autor como a uno de los precursores iberoamericanos en registrar en la literatura el deseo homosexual y los conflictos vividos por las comunidades LGBTQ reprimidas de la época. D’Halmar expone la Sevilla de comienzos del siglo XX como el espacio de la perdición, la bohemia y la lujuria, pero también de la religión, la devoción y la culpa, un lugar donde Deusto y el Aceitunita se ven atrapados por una relación pasional, divinal y escandalosa, que en la actualidad se presenta como un antecedente fundamental en los queer studies y la crítica literaria.

En este artículo exponemos la necesidad de especialización en traducción y paratraducción de textos LGBT+, en especial aquellos que traten identidades no binarias; así como la importancia de alentar a las editoriales a utilizar revisiones de sensibilidad. Para demostrar nuestra hipótesis analizamos la traducción al español de Gender Queer: A Memoir, una novela gráfica en la que se muestra el proceso de descubrimiento de las identidades sexual y de género de Maia Kobabe. La intención de esta obra es servir como una guía y el lenguaje debe acompañar a la imagen en una evolución que nos lleve más allá del sistema binario de género, tanto en el texto como en sus paratextos.

El libro de Jaime Manrique, Eminent Maricones (1999), es un texto autobiográfico en el que se incluyen también las vidas de otros escritores famosos como Manuel Puig, Reinaldo Arenas y Federico García Lorca, porque todos comparten la identidad queer a la que remite el título de la novela. Este texto va más allá de relatar las experiencias que Jaime Manrique tiene con estos famosos escritores de las letras hispánicas: el mismo devela la realidad de la comunidad LGBTQ+ en Latinoamérica y los Estados Unidos y cómo estos escritores, aun siendo famosos, no escapaban de la tiránica sociedad heterocentrada del momento. Al inicio del texto se aprecia una visión heteronormativa de la homosexualidad, aunque el autor admite deliberadamente ser gay. El paso del tiempo y la llegada a la adultez permitieron, en el caso de Manrique, despojarse de esos prejuicios e implantar un discurso subversivo ante la heteronormatividad; este expone su posición dual como escritor latinoamericano y latinoestadounidense. Todas las experiencias mencionadas en el libro llevan a Jaime Manrique a aceptar su sexualidad y el amor sincero hacia los homosexuales. Este artículo analiza este coming-of-age del personaje y su identidad queer, así como los elementos que le permiten liberarse de una homofobia internalizada para apropiarse libremente del sujeto queer.

Abstract Jonathan Safran Foer’s Everything Is Illuminated (2002) follows the two protagonists and narrators of the novel, American descendent of Holocaust survivors Jonathan and Alexander Perchov, his Ukrainian translator and collaborator on the story that constitutes the book itself. This article analyzes a heretofore unconsidered element of the novel: the potential to read Alex as queer. The book’s possible queer narrative is tragic, bittersweet at best, and overlooked by critics. This article illustrates how the character of Alex articulates what might be understood as a queer desire for Jonathan and considers new interpretive insights that might obtain within such a reading. In particular, it reconsiders the relationship between the men, as well as a critical stance that construes the novel’s concluding chapters as Jonathan’s rejection of cross-cultural friendship and collaboration. More important is the insight that a queer understanding of Everything Is Illuminated may provide with regard to the recent turn to the intersections between Jewish Studies and gender and LGBTQ+ theory. Understanding the potentially queer modes of Alex’s expression enables us to consider how Foer disrupts binary identity categories while also highlighting the dangers inherent in positing a reductive likeness between Alex and Jonathan—or between queer and Jewish identities.

Danilo, criador de Lorelay Fox – drag queen, youtuber e artivista LGBTIQ – torna-se ouvinte de uma receptora da telenovela “A força do querer”, a qual constrói sua narrativa a partir da transexualidade da personagem Ivana/ Ivan. Após a escuta, Lorelay apresenta em seu canal, no YouTube, o vídeo “Meu relato sobre a novela ‘A força do querer’” e este conteúdo leva às narrativas das juventudes, suas interlocutoras. Este artigo propõe refletir sobre essa tessitura de narrativas, que tem como foco a transexualidade da personagem Ivana/Ivan Objetiva analisar como esta personagem foi produzida na telenovela, a partir das relações de gênero imbricadas na experiência transexual, e investigar as mediações presentes nas narrativas nesse processo comunicativo: telenovela, receptora, ouvinte Danilo, produtora de conteúdos digitais, Lorelay Fox e seus interlocutores. Concluímos que o cotidiano compartilhado nessas múltiplas narrativas dá visibilidades às identidades individuais e coletivas, assim como, (re)constrói subjetividades e, dessa forma, as experiências trans podem ser um pouco mais autorizadas, em um modo de existir midiatizado.

Abstract This paper aims to demonstrate how the various declinations of public and private dissent represented in a contemporary work of African literature, The Death of Vivek Oji (2020) by Akwaeke Emezi, can be read as an instance of literature’s world-making capacity. As the novel’s title anticipates, The Death of Vivek Oji reconstructs the life of its eponymous protagonist and the events that led to their death (Vivek is a non-binary, transgender person and both male and female pronouns are used to refer to them). Emezi’s novel is set in Nigeria during the late 1990s and the narrative actively engages in a representation of the socio-political situation of the country back then, covering the impact that the sudden death of the head of state, Sani Abacha, had on the population. Throughout the novel, dissent is depicted on two levels: on the one hand, it appears as an expression of democratic desire through the public protests against the country’s politics, as well as acts of violence against and among ethno-religious groups; on the other hand, there is also a parallel representation of private dissent in terms of the affirmation of one’s own identity. Vivek’s decision to not cut their long hair becomes, therefore, a form of personal opposition against society’s pre-imposed gendered constructs. In this sense, if the social stigma attached to members of the LGBT community is personified by the incapacity of Vivek’s parents to accept and understand their non-binary child, Vivek’s friends represent a communal act of resistance against such an oppressive social system. Ultimately, the opposition between public and private dissent finds its climax in Vivek’s death, in its causes and consequences. Building the critical analysis of the novel upon recent conceptualisations of literature as an active force that provokes dissent (Cheah 2016, Burns 2019), this paper demonstrates how Emezi’s narrative uses representations of public and private dissent to contest the current world in order to engage in the construction of a more equal one.

The healthcare community and lay public have become more aware of transgender (TG) people in the past decade as celebrities have publicly transitioned and activists have pushed back against restrictive laws. Movies, television, nonfiction books, and novels increasingly represent the experience of people who are TG. News organizations and entertainment outlets have given attention to the lives, needs, and challenges of TG and gender-nonconforming individuals. Nonetheless, TG individuals are often fearful when seeking healthcare. Experiences of shame, judgment, and rejection with providers lead to anxiety in future encounters. The number of clinical providers who feel prepared to offer care for TG individuals is limited. Many TG individuals have been denied basic primary and preventive healthcare as a result of their TG status. Understanding the concepts of TG and gender nonconformance expands the skill set of the healthcare professional for providing culturally competent care to all patients and their family members. This review contains 26 figures, and 59 references. Key Words: cis-sexual, gender binary, gender confirmation surgery, gender dysphoria, gender nonconforming, intersex, LGBTQ, queer, transgender, WPATH

The healthcare community and lay public have become more aware of transgender (TG) people in the past decade as celebrities have publicly transitioned and activists have pushed back against restrictive laws. Movies, television, nonfiction books, and novels increasingly represent the experience of people who are TG. News organizations and entertainment outlets have given attention to the lives, needs, and challenges of TG and gender-nonconforming individuals. Nonetheless, TG individuals are often fearful when seeking healthcare. Experiences of shame, judgment, and rejection with providers lead to anxiety in future encounters. The number of clinical providers who feel prepared to offer care for TG individuals is limited. Many TG individuals have been denied basic primary and preventive healthcare as a result of their TG status. Understanding the concepts of TG and gender nonconformance expands the skill set of the healthcare professional for providing culturally competent care to all patients and their family members. This review contains 26 figures, and 59 references. Key Words: cis-sexual, gender binary, gender confirmation surgery, gender dysphoria, gender nonconforming, intersex, LGBTQ, queer, transgender, WPATH

The healthcare community and lay public have become more aware of transgender (TG) people in the past decade as celebrities have publicly transitioned and activists have pushed back against restrictive laws. Movies, television, nonfiction books, and novels increasingly represent the experience of people who are TG. News organizations and entertainment outlets have given attention to the lives, needs, and challenges of TG and gender-nonconforming individuals. Nonetheless, TG individuals are often fearful when seeking healthcare. Experiences of shame, judgment, and rejection with providers lead to anxiety in future encounters. The number of clinical providers who feel prepared to offer care for TG individuals is limited. Many TG individuals have been denied basic primary and preventive healthcare as a result of their TG status. Understanding the concepts of TG and gender nonconformance expands the skill set of the healthcare professional for providing culturally competent care to all patients and their family members. This review contains 26 figures, and 59 references. Key Words: cis-sexual, gender binary, gender confirmation surgery, gender dysphoria, gender nonconforming, intersex, LGBTQ, queer, transgender, WPATH

Before coming out of the closet and publishing a series of successful gay novels, Patricia Nell Warren was known as Patricia Kilina, wife of a Ukrainian émigré writer George Tarnawsky. Her early poetry, written in Ukrainian, includes numerous references to non-traditional gender roles which she further explored in her anglophone novels. The Front Runner (1974) was published when Warren had already divorced her husband and came out of the closet. It was met with commercial success and became the first contemporary American bestseller about gay love. In this paper, I focus on the mixed reader-response of The Front Runner in the LGBTQ+ community, as well as the role of homophobia and misogyny in Patricia Nell Warren’s novel. I argue that The Front Runner provides readers with a thought-provoking literary representation of the changing social attitudes towards non-binary gender roles and non-heterosexuality right after Stonewall and before the AIDS epidemic.

This article offers a theoretical perspective on the reception of new Polish queer literature in the Anglosphere as opposed to an “insider’s view”. The reception of queer literature is measured against the stereotype of Polish literature called “Pol- ish school of poetry”. This stereotype when applied to queer literature interacts with the idea of Poland’s “belatedness” in LGBTQ emancipation which is normatively understood as a carbon-copy of Western models, and not as a unique path. Therefore, the Anglosphere reading strategies often rely on “exoticisa- tion” and a certain “postcolonial gaze”. The case studies are two novels, Michał Witkowski’s Lovetown and a limitrophe case, a novel about Poland written in English by Tomasz Jędrowski, Swimming in the Dark. While in the former the political content is almost overlooked, in the latter the description of queer lives under communism seems brought to the forefront. I argue, however, that this vision in Swimming in the Dark does not surpass stereotypes and also is full of historical inaccuracies.

This article focuses on how self-censorship and state censorship have shaped the literary legacy of the Spanish author of children’s books, Elena Fortún. The homosexual closet is presented as a key concept for understanding the impact of censorship on the work of a lesbian writer such as Fortún who has contributed to various narratives of Spanish femininity over the course of almost a century. The first of these is the narrative of gender dissidence during the Second Republic (1931–1939); followed by the narrative of the wife and mother belonging to the Franco Regime (1939–1975); and finally the LGBTQ inclusiveness of the new millennium in Spain (2005–2022). The works included in the analysis are varied, spanning from Fortún’s children’s books to her correspondence and finally two posthumously published novels. This reading of Fortún’s texts reveals how censorship works as a controlling gaze that not only operates from the outside, but is also internalized in the individual, maintaining the doors of the homosexual closet closed from the inside.

AbstractThe quality of impermanence between traditionalism and postmodernism gave birth to Banana’s unique “hybrid narrative”. There, people are caught between traditional values and the attraction of the postmodern lifestyle. Banana’s character loves the kitchen and has a traditional belief in ghosts but is also openly LGBT-identifying—a challenge to modern binarism that is ready to confront random postmodern disasters. The character tries to escape but still seems to be stuck in the same place. This is similar to the situation that young Japanese have to face. In the eternal struggle of life, they need to be honest, live according to their own personal values and, more importantly, always show a willingness to help others with the most practical actions. Observing the world as a whole, Banana’s novels and short stories are simultaneously new and old, and readers today are eager for her stories.

This article analyses two young adult (YA) novels about young men’s experience of anorexia nervosa (AN), within the dual contexts of medical humanities research into literary depictions of illness, and the broader field of YA literature about AN. While emphasising the importance of diverse literary narratives in order to raise awareness of the prevalence of AN in men and boys, and to contribute to the reduction of stigma, it also considers current research into the potentially harmful triggering effects of AN literature on vulnerable readers. It identifies Anne Percin’s Point de côté (Side Stitch) (2006) and Simon Boulerice’s Jeanne Moreau a le sourire à l’envers (Jeanne Moreau Has An Upside-Down Smile) (2013) as examples of good practice in AN literature, due to their thematic focus on male experience, and because they employ narrative strategies that disrupt reader identification with the anorexic character, and avoid focusing directly on potentially triggering descriptions of anorexic ideas and behaviour. They also contribute to diversifying the portrayal of AN via non-judgmental portrayal of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) themes, a topic absent from equivalent YA novels currently available in English. The article further argues that literature—including fiction—contributes to the overall social and cultural discourse surrounding specific illnesses and is likely to affect patients’ real-world experiences, but that it is a specific kind of discourse in its own right, which demands to be read with the appropriate tools. Its detailed analysis of narrative voice alongside thematic content demonstrates how specific approaches from the field of literary studies may complement empirical research into literature and its place within mental health discourse.

El Congreso Internacional “Comics in Dialogue” se desarrolló en formato virtual entre los días 20-23 de octubre 2020. Alrededor de cincuenta invitados, artistas y críticos, y más de cien participantes acudieron a la convocatoria realizada por la Universidad Complutense de Madrid para “dialogar” sobre historietas y novelas gráficas contemporáneas y clásicas. El presente volumen recoge una cuidada selección de las ponencias presentadas por los asistentes a “Comics in Dialogue”: estudios sobre asuntos tan variados como el cómic memorialista protagonizado por mujeres, estudios de adaptación, temática LGBTI y lenguajes gráficos contemporáneos. Este cuaderno, por lo tanto, da cuenta de un esfuerzo compartido entre universidades recorriendo el arco territorial Madrid-Buenos Aires con el objetivo de profundizar en los análisis críticos de las llamadas literaturas de la imagen o narrativas gráficas. La calidad reflexiva y la perspectiva crítica de los trabajos reunidos en este volumen habla por sí misma y dejamos la evaluación a los lectores esperando que disfruten de las lecturas.

Introduction: Doctor Who's “Wilderness Years”1989 saw the cancellation of the BBC's long-running science fiction television series Doctor Who (1965 -). The 1990s were largely bereft of original Doctor Who television content, leading fans to characterise that decade as the “wilderness years” for the franchise (McNaughton 194). From another perspective, though, the 1990s was an unprecedented time of production for Doctor Who media. From 1991 to 1997, Virgin Publishing was licensed by the BBC's merchandising division to publish a series of original Doctor Who novels, which they produced and marketed as a continuation of the television series (Gulyas 46). This series of novels, Doctor Who: The New Adventures (commonly referred to as “the Virgin New Adventures” by fans) proved popular enough to support a monthly release schedule, and from 1994 onwards, a secondary "Missing Adventures" series.Despite their central role in the 1990s, however, many fans have argued that the Doctor Who novels format makes them either less "canonical" than the television series, or completely "apocryphal" (Gulyas 48). This fits with a general trend in transmedia properties, where print-based expansions or spin-offs are generally considered less official or authentic than those that are screen-based (Hills 223). This article argues that the openness of the series to contributions from fan writers – and also some of the techniques and approaches prioritised in fan fiction - resulted in the Virgin range of Doctor Who novels having an unusually significant impact on the development and evolution of the franchise as a whole when compared to the print-based transmedia extensions of other popular series’. The article also argues that the tonal and stylistic influence of the New Adventures novels on the revived Doctor Who television series offers an interesting counter-example to the usually strict hierarchies of content that are implied in Henry Jenkins's influential model of transmedia storytelling. Transmedia StorytellingJenkins uses the term “transmedia storytelling” to describe the ways in which media franchises frequently expand beyond the format they originate with, potentially encompassing television series, films, games, toys, comics and more (Jenkins “Transmedia 202”). In discussing this paradigm, Jenkins notes the ways in which contemporary productions increasingly prioritise “integration and coordination” between the different forms of media (Jenkins Convergence Culture 105). As Jenkins argues, “most discussions of transmedia place a high emphasis on continuity – assuming that transmedia requires a high level of coordination and creative control and that all of the pieces have to cohere into a consistent narrative or world” (Jenkins “Transmedia 202”). Due to this increased emphasis on continuity, the ability to decide which media will be considered as “canonical” within the story-world of the franchise becomes an important one. Where previously questions of canon had been largely confined to fan discussions, debates and interpretive readings of media texts (Jenkins Textual Poachers 102-104), the proprietors of franchises in a transmedia economy have an interest in proactively defining and policing the canon. Designating a particular piece of media as a “canonical” expansion or spinoff of its parent text can be a useful marketing tool, as it creates the expectation that it will provide an important contribution. Correspondingly, declaring that a particular set of media texts is no longer canonical can make the franchise more accessible and allow the authors of new material more creative freedom (Proctor and Freeman 238-9).While Jenkins argues that a reliance on “one single source or ur-text” (“Transmedia 101”) is counter to the spirit of transmedia storytelling, Pillai notes that his emphasis on cohesiveness across diverse media tends to implicitly prioritise the parent text over its various offshoots (103-4). As the parent text establishes continuity and canon, any transmedia supplements are obligated to remain consistent with it, but this is often a one-sided and hierarchical relationship. For example, in the Star Wars transmedia franchise, the film series is considered crucial in establishing the canon; and transmedia supplements are obliged to remain consistent with it in order to be recognised as authentic. The filmmakers, however, are largely free to ignore or contradict the contributions of spin-off books.Hills notes that the components of transmedia franchises are often arranged into “transmedial hierarchies” (223), where screen-based media like films, television series and video games are assigned dominance over print-based productions like comics and novels. This hierarchy means that print-based works typically have a less secure place within the canon of transmedia franchises, despite often contributing a disproportionately large quantity of narratives and concepts (Guynes 143). Using the Star Wars Expanded Universe as an example, he notes a tendency whereby “franchise novels” are generally considered as disposable, and are easily erased or decanonised despite significantly long, carefully interwoven and coordinated periods of storytelling (143-5). Doctor Who as a Transmedia FranchiseWhile questions of canon are frequently debated and discussed among Doctor Who fans, it is less easy to make absolutist distinctions between canonical and apocryphal texts in Doctor Who than it is in other popular transmedia franchises. Unlike comparable transmedia productions, Doctor Who has traditionally lacked a singular authority over questions of canon and consistency in the manner that Jenkins argues for in his implicitly hierarchical conception of transmedia storytelling (Convergence Culture 106). Where franchises like Star Wars, Star Trek or The X-Files have been guided by creator-figures who either exert direct control over their various iterations or oblige them to remain broadly consistent with their original vision, Doctor Who has generally avoided this focus; creative control has passed between various showrunners and production teams, who have been largely free to establish their own style and tone.Furthermore, the franchise has traditionally favoured a largely self-contained and episodic style of storytelling; and different storylines and periods from its long history often contradict one another. For these reasons, Booth suggests that the largely retroactive attempts on the part of fans and critics to read the entire series as the type of transmedia production that Jenkins advocates for (i.e. an internally consistent narrative of connected stories) are counter-productive. He argues that Doctor Who is perhaps best understood not as a continuing series but as a long-running anthology, where largely autonomous stories and serials can be grouped into distinct “periods” of resemblance in terms of style and subject matter (198-206).As Britton argues, when appreciating Doctor Who as franchise, there is no particular need to assign primary importance to the parent media. Since its first season in 1965, the Doctor Who television series has been regularly supplemented by other media in the form of comics, annuals, films, stage-plays, audio-dramas, and novelisations. Britton maintains that as the transmedia works follow the same loosely connected, episodic structure as the television series, they operate as equally valid or equally disposable components within its metanarrative (1-9). Doctor Who writer Paul Cornell argues that given the accommodating nature of the show’s time-travel premise (which can easily accommodate the inconsistencies that Jenkins argues should be avoided in transmedia storytelling), and in the absence of a singular revered creator-figure or authority, absolutist pronouncements on canon from any source are unnecessary and exclusionary, either delegitimising texts that the audience may value, or insisting on familiarity with a particular text in order for an experience of the media to be considered “legitimate”. The Transmedia Legacy of the Virgin New AdventuresAs the Virgin Doctor Who novels are not necessarily diminished by either their lack of a clear canonical status or their placement as a print work within a screen-focused property, they can arguably be understood as constituting their own distinct “period” of Doctor Who in the manner defined by Booth. This claim is supported by the ways in which the New Adventures distinguish themselves from the typically secondary or supplemental transmedia extensions of most other television franchises.In contrast with the one-sided and hierarchical relationship that typically exists between the parent text and its transmedia extensions (Pillai 103-4), the New Adventures range did not attempt to signal their authenticity through stylistic and narrative consistency with their source material. Virgin had already published a long series of novelisations of story serials from the original television series under its children’s imprint, Target, but from their inception the New Adventures were aimed at a more mature audience. The editor of the range, Peter Darvill-Evans, observed that by the 1990s, Doctor Who’s dedicated fan base largely consisted of adults who had grown up with the series in the 1970s and 1980s rather than the children that both the television series and the novelisations had traditionally targeted (Perryman 23). The New Adventures were initially marketed as being “too broad and deep for the small screen” (Gulyas 46), positioning them as an improvement or evolution rather than an attempt to imitate the parent media or to compensate for its absence.By comparison, most other 1990s print-based supplements to popular screen franchises tended to closely mimic the style, tone and storytelling structure of their source material. For example, the Star Wars "Expanded Universe" series of novels (which began in 1991) were subject to strict editorial oversight to ensure they remained consistent with the films and were initially marketed as "film-like events" as a way of emphasising their equivalence to the original media (Proctor and Freeman 226). The Virgin New Adventures were also distinctive due to their open submission policy (which actively encouraged submissions from fan writers who had not previously achieved conventional commercial publication) alongside work from "professional" authors (Perryman 24). This policy began because Darvill-Evans noted the ability, high motivation and deep understanding of Doctor Who possessed by fan writers (Bishop) and it proved essential in establishing the more mature approach that the series was aiming for. After three indifferently received novels from professional authors, the first work from a fan author, Paul Cornell’s Timewyrm: Revelation (1991) became highly popular, due to its more grounded, serious and complex exploration of the character of the Doctor and their human companion. Following the success of Cornell’s novel, the series began to establish its own distinctive tone, emphasising gritty urban settings, character development and interpersonal drama, and the exploration of moral ambiguities and social and political issues that would have not been permissible in the original television series (Gulyas 46-8).Works by previously unpublished fan authors came to dominate the range to such an extent that the New Adventures has been described as “licensing professionally produced fan fiction” (Perryman 23). This trajectory established the New Adventures as an unusual hybrid text, combining the sanction of an official license with the usually unofficial phenomenon of fan custodianship. The cancellation of a television series (as experienced by Doctor Who in 1989) often allows its fan community to take custodianship of it in a variety of ways (McNoughton 194). While a series is being broadcast, fans are often constructed as elite but essentially ”powerless” readers, whose interpretations and desires can easily be contradicted or ignored by the series creators (Tulloch and Jenkins 141). With cancellation and a diminishing mass audience, fans become the custodians of the series and its memory. Their interpretations can no longer be overwritten, and they become the principle market for official merchandise and transmedia extensions (McNoughton 194-6).Also, fans can explore and fulfil their desires for the narrative direction and tone of the series, through the “cottage industries” of fan-created merchandise (196) and “gift economies” of fan fiction (Flegal and Roth 258), without being impeded or overruled by official developments in the parent media. This movement towards fan custodianship and production became more visible during the 1990s, as digital technology allowed for rapid communication, connection and exchange (Coppa 53). The Virgin New Adventures range arguably operated as a meeting point between officially sanctioned commercial spin-off media and the fan-centric industries of production that work to prolong the life and memory of a cancelled television series. Indeed, the direct inclusion of fan authors and the techniques and approaches associated with fan fiction likely helped to establish the deeper, more mature interpretation of Doctor Who offered by the New Adventures.As Stein and Busse observe, a recurring feature of fan fiction has been a focus on exploring the inner lives of the characters from its source media, and adding depth and complexity to their relationships (196-8). Furthermore, the successful New Adventures fan authors tended to offer support and encouragement to each other via their informal networks, which affected the development of the series as a transmedia production (Perryman 24). Flegal and Roth note that in contrast to often solitary and individualistic forms of “professional” and “literary” writing, the composition of fan fiction emerges out of collegial, supportive and reciprocal communities (265-8). The meeting point that the Virgin New Adventures provided between professional writing practice and the attitudes and approaches common to the types of fan fiction that were becoming more prominent in the nineties (Coppa 53-5) helped to shape the evolution of Doctor Who as a franchise.Where previous Doctor Who stories (regardless of the media or medium) had been largely isolated from each other, the informal fan networks that connected the New Adventures authors allowed and encouraged them to collaborate more closely, ensuring consistency between the instalments and plotting out multi-volume story-arcs and character development. Where the Star Wars Expanded Universe series of novels ensured consistency through extensive and often intrusive top-down editorial control (Proctor and Freeman 226-7), the New Adventures developed this consistency through horizontal relationships between authors. While Doctor Who has always been a transmedia franchise, the Virgin New Adventures may be the first point where it began to fully engage with the possibilities of the coordinated and consistent transmedia storytelling discussed by Jenkins (Perryman 24-6). It is notable that this largely developed out of the collaborative and reciprocal relationships common to communities of fan-creators rather than through the singular and centralised control that Jenkins advocates.While the Virgin range of Doctor Who novels ended long before the revival of the television series in 2005, its influence on the style, tone and subject matter of the new series has been noted. As Perryman argues, the emphasis on more cohesive story-arcs and character development between episodes has been inherited from the New Adventures (24). The 2005 series also followed the Virgin novels in presenting the Doctor’s companions with detailed backgrounds and having their relationships shift and evolve, rather than remaining static like they did in the original series. The more distinctly urban focus of the new series was also likely shaped by the success of the New Adventures (Haslop 217); its well-publicised emphasis on inclusiveness and diversity was likewise prefigured by the Virgin novels, which were the first Doctor Who media to include non-Anglo and LGBQT companions (McKee "How to tell the difference" 181-2). It is highly unusual for a print-based transmedia extension to have this level of impact. Indeed, one of the most visible and profitable transmedia initiatives that began in the 1990s, the Star Wars Expanded Universe novels (which like the New Adventures was presented as an officially sanctioned continuation of the original media), was unceremoniously decanonised in 2014, and the interpretations of Star Wars characters and themes that it had developed over more than a decade of storytelling were almost entirely disregarded by the new films (Proctor and Freeman 235-7). The comparably large influence that the New Adventures had on the development of its franchise indicates the success of its fan-centric approach in developing a more relationship-driven and character-focused interpretation of its parent media.The influence of the New Adventures is also felt more directly through the continuing careers of its authors. A number of the fan writers who achieved their first commercial publication with the New Adventures (e.g. Paul Cornell, Gareth Roberts, Mark Gatiss) went on to write scripts for the new series. The first showrunner, Russell T. Davies, was the author of the later novels, Damaged Goods (1997), and the second, Steven Moffat, had been an active member of Doctor Who fan communities that discussed and promoted the Virgin books (Bishop). As the former New Adventures author Kate Orman notes, this movement from writing usually secondary franchise novels to working on and having authority over the parent media is almost unheard of (McKee “Interview with Kate Orman” 138), and speaks to the success of the combination of fan authorship and official licensing and support found in the New Adventures. As Hadas notes, the chief difference between the new series of Doctor Who and its classic version is that former and long-term fans of the series are now directly involved in its production, thus complicating Tullouch and Jenkin’s assessment of Doctor Who fans as a “powerless elite” (141). ConclusionThe continuing influence of the nineties New Adventures novels can still be detected in the contemporary series. These novels operate with regard to the themes, preoccupations and styles of storytelling that this range pioneered within the Doctor Who franchise, and which developed directly out of its innovative and unusual strategy of giving official sanction and editorial support to typically obscured and subcultural modes of fan writing. The reductive and exclusionary question of canon can be avoided when considering the above novels. These transmedia productions are important to the evolution and development of the media franchise as a whole. In this respect, the Virgin New Adventures operate as their own distinctive, legitimate and influential "period" within Doctor Who, demonstrating the creative potential of an approach to transmedia storytelling that deemphasises strict hierarchies of content and control and can readily include the contributions of fan producers.ReferencesBishop, David. “Four Writers, One Discussion: Andy Lane, Paul Cornell, Steven Moffat and David Bishop.” Time Space Visualiser 43 (March 1995). 1 Nov. 2018 <http://doctorwho.org.nz/archive/tsv43/onediscussion.html>.Booth, Paul. “Periodising Doctor Who.” Science Fiction Film and Television 7.2 (2014). 195-215.Britton, Piers D. TARDISbound: Navigating the Universes of Doctor Who. London: I.B. Tauris and Company, 2011.Coppa, Francesca. “A Brief History of Media Fandom.” Fan Fiction and Fan Communities in the Age of the Internet. Eds. Karen Hellekson and Kristina Busse. Jefferson NC: McFarland and Company, 2009. 41-59.Cornell, Paul. “Canonicity in Doctor Who”. PaulConell.com. 10 Feb. 2007. 30 Nov. 2018 <https://www.paulcornell.com/2007/02/canonicity-in-doctor-who/>.Doctor Who. British Broadcasting Corporation, 1965 to present.Flegal, Monica, and Jenny Roth. “Writing a New Text: the Role of Cyberculture in Fanfiction Writers’ Transition to ‘Legitimate’ Publishing.” Contemporary Women’s Writing 10.2 (2016): 253-270.Gulyas, Aaron. “Don’t Call It a Comeback.” Doctor Who in Time and Space: Essays on Themes, Characters, History and Fandom, 1963-2012. Ed. Donald E. Palumbo and C.W. Sullivan. Jefferson NC: McFarland and Company, 2013. 44-63.Guynes, Sean. “Publishing the New Jedi Order: Media Industries Collaboration and the Franchise Novel.” Star Wars and the History of Transmedia Storytelling. Eds. Sean Guynes and Dan Hassler-Forest. Amsterdam: Amsterdam UP, 2017. 143-154.Hadas, Leora. “Running the Asylum? Doctor Who’s Ascended Fan-Showrunners.” Deletion. 23 June 2014. 30 Nov. 2018 <http://www.deletionscifi.org/episodes/episode-5/running-asylum-doctor-whos-ascended-fan-showrunners/>.Haslop, Craig. “Bringing Doctor Who Back for the Masses: Regenerating Cult, Commodifying Class.” Science Fiction Film and Television 9.2 (2016): 209-297.Hills, Matt. “From Transmedia Storytelling to Transmedia Experience: Star Wars Celebration as a Crossover/Hierarchical Space.” Star Wars and the History of Transmedia Storytelling. Eds. Sean Guynes and Dan Hassler-Forest. Amsterdam: Amsterdam UP, 2017. 213-224.Jenkins III, Henry. Textual Poachers: Television Fans and Participatory Culture. New York: Routledge. 1992.———. Convergence Culture: Where Old and New Media Collide. New York: New York UP, 2006.———. “Transmedia Storytelling 101.” Confessions of an Aca-Fan. 22 Mar. 2007. 30 Nov. 2018 <http://henryjenkins.org/blog/2007/03/transmedia_storytelling_101.html>.———. “Transmedia Storytelling 202: Further Reflections.” Confessions of an Aca-Fan. 1 Aug. 2011. 30 Nov. 2018 <http://henryjenkins.org/blog/2011/08/defining_transmedia_further_re.html>.McKee, Alan. "How to Tell the Difference between Production and Consumption: A Case Study in Doctor Who Fandom." Cult Television. Eds. Sara Gwenllian-Jones and Richard M. Pearson. University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis, 2004: 167-186.———. “Interview with Kate Orman: Dr Who Author.” Continuum 19.1 (2005): 127-139. McNaughton, Douglas. “Regeneration of a Brand: The Fan Audience and the 2005 Doctor Who Revival.” Ruminations, Peregrinations, and Regenerations: A Critical Approach to Doctor Who. Ed. Christopher J. Hansen. Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2010. 192-208.Perryman, Neil. “Doctor Who and the Convergence of Media: A Case Study in ‘Transmedia Storytelling’.” Convergence: The International Journal of Research into New Media Technologies 14.1 (2008): 21-39.Pillai, Nicolas. “’What Am I Looking at, Mulder?’ Licensed Comics and the Freedoms of Transmedia Storytelling.” Science Fiction Film and Television 6.1 (2013): 101-117.Porter, Lynnette. The Doctor Who Franchise: American Influence, Fan Culture, and the Spinoffs. Jefferson NC: McFarland and Company, 2018.Procter, William, and Matthew Freeman. “’The First Step into a Smaller World’: The Transmedia Economy of Star Wars.” Revisiting Imaginary Worlds: A Subcreation Studies Anthology. Ed. Mark J.P. Wolf. New York: Routledge. 2016. 223-245.Stein, Louisa, and Kristina Busse. “Limit Play: Fan Authorship between Source Text, Intertext, and Context.” Popular Communication 7.4 (2009): 192-207.Tullouch, John, and Henry Jenkins III. Science Fiction Audiences: Watching Star Trek and Doctor Who. New York: Routledge, 1995.

Introduction Many people’s knowledge of history is gleaned through popular culture. As a result there is likely a blurring of history with myth. This is one of the criticisms of historical romance novels, which blur historical details with fictional representations. As a result of this the genre is often dismissed from serious academic scholarship. The other reason for its disregard may be that it is largely seen as women’s fiction. As ‘women’s fiction’ it is largely relegated to that of ‘low culture’ and considered to have little literary value. Yet the romance genre remains popular and lucrative. Research by the Romance Writers of America in 2016 found that the genre represents 23% of the US fiction market and generates in excess of US$1 billion per year (Romance Writers of America). Since the onset of COVID-19, sales of romance novels in the US have soared, increasing by 17% between January and May 2020. The most popular genre was the historical romance genre. In total during that period, 16.2 million romance e-books were purchased by consumers (NPD). Yet despite its popularity, romance fiction remains stuck in the pulp fiction bubble. This article draws upon an international survey conducted in June 2020 by the authors. The study aimed to understand how readers of historical romance novels (n=813) engage with historical representations in popular culture, and how they navigate issues of authenticity. Consuming History through Popular Culture: “Historical Romance Novels Bring History to Life” Popular culture presents a tangible way in which audiences can engage with history and historical practices. “The spaces scholars have no idea about – the gaps between verifiable fact – are the territory for the writer of fictional history” (de Groot 217). Historical romance writer Georgette Heyer, for example, was influenced by her father’s conviction that “the historical novel was a worthy medium for learning about the past” (Kloester 102), and readers of historical romance often echo this view. One participant in this study considered the genre a way to “learn about history, the mores and customs, the food and clothing of that particular era … and how it contrasts to modern times”. For another participant, “most historical romances are set in countries other than my own. I like learning about these other countries and cultures”. The historical romance genre, in some instances, was not the reason for reading the novel: it was the historical setting. The romance itself was often incidental: “I am more interested in the history than the romance, but if the romance is done well … [then] the tensions of the romance illustrate and highlight historical divisions”. While a focus on history rather than romance, it posits that authors are including historically accurate details, and this is recognised by readers of the genre. In fact, one contributor to the survey argued that as a member of a writers’ group they were aware of that the “majority of the writers of that genre were voracious researchers, so much so that writers of other genres (male western writers for one) were going to them for information”. While fiction provides entertainment and relaxation, reading historical romance provides an avenue for accessing history without engaging it in a scholarly environment. Participants offered examples of this, saying “I like learning about the past and novels are an easy and relaxing way to do it” and “I enjoy historical facts but don’t necessarily need to read huge historical texts about Elizabeth Woodville when I can read The White Queen.” Social and political aspects of an era were gleaned from historical romance novels that may be less evident in historical texts. For one respondent, “I enjoy the description of the attire … behaviours … the social strata, politics, behaviours toward women and women who were ahead of their time”. Yet at the same time, historical fiction provides a way for readers to learn about historical events and places that spurred them to access more factual historical sources: “when I read a novel that involves actual historic happenings, it drives me to learn if the author is representing them correctly and to learn more about the topics”. For another, the historical romance “makes me want to do some more research”. Hence, historical fiction can provide new ways of seeing the past: “I enjoy seeing the similarities between people of the past and present. Hist[orical] Fic[tion] brings us hope that we can learn and survive our present.” A consciousness of how ancestors “survived and thrived” was evident among many participants. For one, history is best learned through the eyes of the people who lived through the era. School doesn’t teach history in a way that I can grasp, but putting myself into the shoes of the ordinary people who experienced, I have a better understanding of the time. Being able to access different perspectives on history and historical events and make an emotional connection with the past allowed readers to better understand the lived experiences of those from the past. This didn’t mean that readers were ignoring the fictional nature of the genre; rather, readers were clearly aware that the author was often taking liberties with history in order to advance the plot. Yet they still enjoyed the “glimpses of history that is included in the story”, adding that the “fictional details makes the history come alive”. The Past Represents a Different Society For some, historical romances presented a different society, and in some ways a nostalgia for the past. This from one participant: I like the attention to eloquence, to good speech, to manners, to responsibility toward each other, to close personal relationships, to value for education and history, to an older, more leisurely, more thoughtful way of life. A similar view was offered by another participant: “I like the language. I like the slowness, the courtship. I like the olden time social rules of honour and respect. I like worlds in which things like sword fights might occur”. For these respondents, there is a nostalgia where things were better then than now (Davis 18). Readers clearly identified with the different social and moral behaviours that they experienced in the novels they are reading, with one identifying more with the “historical morals, ethics, and way of life than I do modern ones”. Representations of a more respectful past were one aspect that appealed to readers: “people are civil to each other”, they are “generally kinder” and have a “more traditional moral code”. An aspect of escapism is also evident: “I enjoy leaving the present day for a while”. It is a past where readers find “time and manners [that are] now lost to us”. The genre reflects time that “seemed simpler” but “of course it helps if you are in the upper class”. Many historical romance novels are set within the social sphere of the elites of a society. And these readers’ views clearly indicate this: honestly, the characters are either wealthy or will be by the end, which releases from the day to day drudgeries and to the extent possible ensures an economic “happily ever after” as well as a romantic one … . I know the reality of even the elite wasn’t as lovely as portrayed in the books. But they are a charming and sometimes thrilling fantasy to escape inside … It is in the elite social setting that a view emerges in historical romance novels that “things are simpler and you don’t have today’s social issues to deal with”. No one period of history appears to reflect this narrative; rather, it is a theme across historical periods. The intrigue is in how the storyline develops to cope with social mores. “I enjoy reading about characters who wind their way around rules and the obstacles of their society … . Nothing in a historical romance can be fixed with a quick phone call”. The historical setting is actually an advantage because history places constrictions upon a plot: “no mobile phones, no internet, no fast cars. Many a plot would be over before it began if the hero and heroine had a phone”. Hence history and social mores “limit the access of characters and allow for interesting situations”. Yet another perspective is how readers draw parallels to the historic pasts they read about: “I love being swept away into a different era and being able to see how relevant some social issues are today”. There are however aspects that readers are less enamoured with, namely the lack of sex. While wholesome, particularly in the case of Christian authors, other characters are heroines who are virgins until after marriage, but even then may be virgins for “months or years after the wedding”. Similarly, “I deplore the class system and hate the inequalities of the past, yet I love stories where dukes and earls behave astonishingly well and marry interesting women and where all the nastiness is overcome”. The Problem with Authenticity The results of the international historical romance survey that forms the basis of this research indicate that most readers and writers alike were concerned with authenticity. Writers of historical romance novels often go to great lengths to ensure that their stories are imbued with historically accurate details. For readers, this “brings the characters and locales to life”. For readers, “characters can be fictional, but major events and ways of living should be authentic … dress, diet, dances, customs, historic characters”. Portraying historical accuracy is appreciated by readers: “I appreciate the time and effort the author takes to research subjects and people from a particular time period to make their work seem more authentic and believable”. Georgette Heyer, whose works were produced between 1921 and 1974, is considered as the doyenne of regency romance novels (Thurston 37), with a reputation for exacting historical research (Kloester 209). Heyer’s sway is such that 88 (10.8%) of the respondents to the romance survey cited her when asked who their favourite author is, with some also noting that she is a standard for other authors to aspire to. For one participant, I only read one writer of historical romance: Georgette Heyer. Why? Sublime writing skills, characterisation, delicious Wodehousian humour and impeccable accurate and research into the Regency period. Despite this prevailing view, “Heyer’s Regency is a selective one, and much of the broader history of the period is excluded from it” (Kloester 210). Heyer’s approach to history is coloured by the various approaches and developments to historiography that occurred throughout the period in which she was writing (Kloester 103). There is little evidence that she approached her sources with a critical eye and it appears that she often accepted her sources as historical fact (Kloester 112). Heyer’s works are devoid of information as to what is based in history and what was drawn from her imagination (Kloester 110). Despite the omissions above, Heyer has a reputation for undertaking meticulous research for her novels. This, however, is problematic in itself, as Alexandra Stirling argues: “in trying to recreate Regency patterns of speech by applying her knowledge of historical colloquialism, she essentially created her own dialect” that has come to “dominate the modern genre” (Stirling). Heyer is also highly criticised for both her racism (particularly anti-Semitism), which is reflected in her characterisation of Regency London as a society of “extreme whiteness”, which served to erase “the reality of Regency London as a cosmopolitan city with people of every skin colour and origin, including among the upper classes” (Duvezin-Caubet 249). Thus Heyer’s Regency London is arguably a fantasy world that has little grounding in truth, despite her passion for historical research. Historical romance author Felicia Grossman argues that this paradox occurs as “mixed in with [Heyer’s] research is a lot of pure fiction done to fit her personal political views” (Grossman), where she deliberately ignores historical facts that do not suit her narrative, such as the sociological implications of the slave trade and the very public debate about it that occurred during the regency. The legacy of these omissions can be found in contemporary romances set in that period. By focussing on, and intensifying, a narrow selection of historical facts, “the authentic is simultaneously inauthentic” (Hackett 38). For one participant, “I don’t really put much stock into “historical accuracy” as a concept, when I read a historical romance, I read it almost in the way that one would read a genre fantasy novel, where each book has its own rules and conventions”. Diversifying the Bubble The intertwining of history and narrative posits how readers separate fact from fiction. Historical romance novels have often been accused by both readers and critics of providing a skewed view on the past. In October 2019 the All about Romance blog asked its readers: “Does Historical Romance have a quality problem?”, leading to a strong debate with many contributors noting how limited the genre had developed, with the lack of diversity being a particular strain of discussion. Just a few weeks later, the peak industry body, the Romance Writers Association of America, became embroiled in a racism controversy. Cultural products such as romance novels are products of a wider white heteronormative paradigm which has been increasingly challenged by movements such as the LGBTQI+, Me Too, and Black Lives Matter, which have sought to address the evident racial imbalance. The lack of racial representation and racial equality in historical novels also provides an opportunity to consider contemporary ideals. Historical romance novels for one participant provided a lens through which to understand the “challenges for women and queers”. Being a genre that is dominated by both female writers and readers (the Romance Writers Association claims that 82% of readers are female), it is perhaps no surprise that many respondents were concerned with female issues. For one reader, the genre provides a way to “appreciate the freedom that women have today”. Yet it remains that the genre is fictional, allowing readers to fantasise about different social and racial circumstances: “I love the modern take on historical novels with fearless heroines living lives (they maybe couldn’t have) in a time period that intrigues me”. Including strong women and people of colour in the genre means those once excluded or marginalised are centralised, suggesting historical romance novels provide a way of fictionally going some way to re-addressing gender and racial imbalances. Coupled with romance’s guarantee of a happy ending, the reader is assured that the heroine has a positive outcome, and can “have it all”, surely a mantra that should appeal to feminists. “Historical romance offers not just escape, but a journey – emotional, physical or character change”; in this view, readers positively respond to a narrative in which plots engage with both the positive and negative sides of history. One participant put it this way: “I love history especially African American history. Even though our history is painful it is still ours and we loved just like we suffered”. Expanding the Bubble Bridgerton (2020–), the popular Netflix show based upon Julia Quinn’s bestselling historical romance series, challenges the whitewashing of history by presenting an alternative history. Choosing a colour-blind cast and an alternate reality where racism was dispelled when the King marries a woman of colour and bestowed honours on citizens of all colours, Bridgerton’s depiction of race has generally been met with positive reviews. The author of the series of books that Bridgerton is adapted from addressed this point: previously, I’ve gotten dinged by the historical accuracy police. So in some ways, I was fearful – if you do that, are you denying real things that happened? But you know what? This is already romantic fantasy, and I think it’s more important to show that as many people as possible deserve this type of happiness and dignity. So I think they made the absolutely right choice, bringing in all this inclusivity (Quinn cited in Flood). Despite the critics, and there have been some, Netflix claims that the show has placed “number one in 83 countries including the US, UK, Brazil, France, India and South Africa”, which they credited partly to audiences who “want to see themselves reflected on the screen” (Howe). There is no claim to accuracy, as Howe argues that the show’s “Regency reimagined isn’t meant to be history. It’s designed to be more lavish, sexier and funnier than the standard period drama”. As with the readers surveyed above, this is a knowing audience who are willing to embrace an alternate vision of the past. Yet there are aspects which need to remain, such as costume, class structure, technology, which serve to signify the past. As one participant remarked, “I love history. I love reading what is essentially a fantasy-realism setting. I read for escapism and it’s certainly that”. “The Dance of History and Fiction” What is evident in this discussion is what Griffiths calls the “dance of history and fiction”, where “history and fiction … are a tag team, sometimes taking turns, sometimes working in tandem, to deepen our understanding and extend our imagination” (Griffiths). He reminds us that “historians and novelists do not constitute inviolable, impermeable categories of writers. Some historians are also novelists and many novelists are also historians. Historians write fiction and novelists write history”. More so, “history doesn’t own truth, and fiction doesn’t own imagination”. Amongst other analysis of the intersections and juxtaposition of history and fiction, Griffiths provides one poignant discussion, that of Kate Grenville’s novel The Secret River (2006). According to the author's own Website, The Secret River caused controversy when it first appeared, and become a pawn in the “history wars” that continues to this day. How should a nation tell its foundation story, when that story involves the dispossession of other people? Is there a path between the “black armband” and the “white blindfold” versions of a history like ours? In response to the controversy Grenville made an interesting if confusing argument that she does not make a distinction between “story-telling history” and “the discipline of History”, and between “writing true stories” and “writing History” (Griffiths). The same may be said for romance novelists; however, it is in their pages that they are writing a history. The question is if it is an authentic history, and does that really matter? References Davis, Fred. Yearning for Yesterday: A Sociology of Nostalgia. Free Press, 1979. De Groot, Jerome. Consuming History Historians and Heritage in Contemporary Popular Culture. Florence Taylor and Francis, 2009. Duvezin-Caubet, Caroline. "Gaily Ever After: Neo-Victorian M/M Genre Romance for the Twenty-First Century." Neo-Victorian Studies 13.1 (2020). Flood, Alison. "Bridgerton Author Julia Quinn: 'I've Been Dinged by the Accuracy Police – but It's Fantasy!'." The Guardian 12 Jan. 2021. 15 Jan. 2021 <https://www.theguardian.com/books/2021/jan/12/bridgerton-author-julia-quinn-accuracy-fantasy-feisty-rakish-artistocrats-jane-austen>. Griffiths, Tom. "The Intriguing Dance of History and Fiction." TEXT 28 (2015). Grossman, Felicia. "Guest Post: Georgette Heyer Was an Antisemite and Her Work Is Not Foundational Historical Romance." Romance Daily News 2021 (2020). <https://romancedailynews.medium.com/guest-post-georgette-heyer-was-an-antisemite-and-her-work-is-not-foundational-historical-romance-fc00bfc7c26>. Hackett, Lisa J. "Curves & a-Lines: Why Contemporary Women Choose to Wear Nostalgic 1950s Style Clothing." Sociology. Doctor of Philosophy, University of New England, 2020. 320. Howe, Jinny. "'Bridgerton': How a Bold Bet Turned into Our Biggest Series Ever." Netflix, 27 Jan. 2021. <https://about.netflix.com/en/news/bridgerton-biggest-series-ever>. Kloester, Jennifer V. "Georgette Heyer: Writing the Regency: History in Fiction from Regency Buck to Lady of Quality 1935-1972." 2004. NPD. "Covid-19 Lockdown Gives Romance a Lift, the NPD Group Says." NPD Group, 2020. 2 Feb. 2021 <https://www.npd.com/wps/portal/npd/us/news/press-releases/2020/covid-19-lockdown-gives-romance-a-lift--the-npd-group-says/>. Romance Writers of America. "About the Romance Genre." 2016. 2 Feb. 2021 <https://www.rwa.org/Online/Romance_Genre/About_Romance_Genre.aspx>. Stirling, Alexandra. "Love in the Ton: Georgette Heyer's Legacy in Regency Romance World-Building." Nursing Clio. Ed. Jacqueline Antonovich. 13 Feb. 2020. <https://nursingclio.org/2020/02/13/love-in-the-ton-georgette-heyers-legacy-in-regency-romance-world-building/>. 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