top of page

Reading List for (Pseudo)Students

Updated: Jan 20, 2022

Disclaimer: This reading list will be in a state of constant change, much like ourselves (and my gender lol).


Films


(Films with an asterisk are satirical portrayals of trans people)


  • Yapping Out Loud: Contagious Thoughts of an Unrepentant Whore (Mirha-Soleil Ross, 2001)

  • Still Black: Portrait of Black Trans Men (Ziegler, 2008)

  • Call Her Ganda (Raval, 2018)

  • * Women in Revolt (Morrissey, 1971)

  • No Ordinary Man (Chin-Yee, Joynt, 2020)

  • By Hook or By Crook (Dodge, Howard, 2001)

  • Screaming Queens: The Riot at Compton’s Cafeteria (Silverman and Stryker, 2005)

  • Cruel and Unusual (Baus et al., 2006)

  • Transparent (Rosskam, 2005)


 

Monographs


Miles, Laura (2020): Transgender Resistance. Socialism and the Fight for Trans Liberation. London: Bookmarks Publications Ltd. Keywords: Socialism; Trans History; US Transphobia; UK Transphobia; Trans Politics

Thesis Bychowski, Gabrielle M. W. (2017): Trans Literature. Transgender Histories and Genres of Embodiment, Medieval and Post-Medieval. Dissertation. George Washington University. The Columbian College of Arts and Sciences, checked on 12/10/2021. Keywords: Trans History; Intersex History; European History; Pilgrimage; Cartography; Medieval History


 

Polygraphs


LaFleur, Greta; Raskolnikov, Masha; Klosowska, Anna (Eds.) (2021): Trans Historical. Gender Plurality Before the Modern. London: Cornell University Press. Keywords: Medieval History; Trans History; Intersex History; Foucault; Rykener; Le Marcis; Inquisition; Cartography; Cultural Theory; Critical Theory; Trans Literary Analysis; Archives

Gleeson, Jules Joanne; O'Rourke, Elle (Eds.) (2021):
Transgender Marxism.
London: Pluto Press.
Keywords: Transgender Theory; Gender Theory; Marxism; Social Sciences; Cultural Theory; Critical Theory; Socialism;


 

Journal Articles



Cavanagh, Shiela L. (2019): Transcryptums. An Ettingerian Reading of the Trans-subjective Landscape in Transparent. In Transgender Studies Quarterly 6 (1), pp. 20–42.

This is, imo, a rly good article on transgender trauma and talks abt Ettinger, Lacan, rly helped me get through some internal stuff - worth probs using if ur writing an essay on Othering, Judaism, and trauma (transgenerational trauma, colonialism, the victimhood of the white female, TERFist views of how transmen are traumatised lesbians).


Gutt, Blake (2019): Medieval Trans Lives in Anamorphosis. Looking Back and Seeing Differently (Pregnant Men and Backward Birth). In Medieval Feminist Forum 55 (1), pp. 174–206. Keywords: Backward Birth; French History; Literature Analysis; Medieval; Pregnant Men; Trans History

A good introduction, but hard read, on how we can look at medieval cultural produce (literature, art) through the ‘trans gaze’. The article both analyses primary sources and also analyses the analysis given. Generally good for anyone going into studying trans history, as the analysis of analysis will give some interesting takes on how we can view history as trans people, and its importance.


Horbury, Ezra; Yao, Christine (2020): Empire and Eugenics. Trans Studies in the United Kingdom. In Transgender Studies Quarterly 7 (3), pp. 445–454.

This article is abt UK-specific trans issues, very good analysis of the political climate in the UK, not so much theory so it'd be good for using it to analyse contemporary transphobia in the UK for any reason.


Hoff, Shannon (2015): Translating Principle into Practice. On Derrida and the Terms of Feminism. In The Journal of Speculative Philosophy 29 (3), pp. 403–414. Keywords: Feminism; Derrida; inclusion; transgender; reproduction

On Derrida and how his idea of deconstructing words/concepts, and his views on ‘hospitality’, can apply to the trans struggle, specifically pertaining to feminism and transfeminism.


Irving, Dan (2013): Against the Grain. Teaching Transgender Human Rights. In Sexualities 16 (3-4), pp. 319–335.

An article on the route of trans studies, what is desirable, methodology. It's a bit of a hard read bc it utilises a lot of the 'shocking' theory of trans theorists that demonises trans ppl as an act of strike against the gender binary but it's not a transphobic article.


Nordmarken, Sonny (2019): Queering Gendering. Trans Epistemologies and the Disruption and Production of Gender Accomplishment Practices. In Feminist Studies 45 (1), pp. 36–66.

Is a lot easier read than most articles, I wrote in my notes 'maybe good for intro reading' - it touches on Butler, explains philosophies rather than assuming the reader knows already, and towards the end presents a lot of arguments against Butlerian etc ideas that we can deconstruct gender by using what genders we already have. E.g. "As Connell argues, treating gender as performative and citational is not enough, because gender is ontoformative: “Practice starts from structure, but does not repetitively cite its starting point. Rather, social practice continuously brings social reality into being, and that social reality becomes the ground of new practice through time.”" (Nordmarken 2019, p. 63).


Velasco, Gina K. (2020): Queer and Trans Necropolitics in the Afterlife of U.S. Empire. In Amerasia Journal 46 (2), pp. 238–252. Keywords: American Tropics; anti-imperialist; culture; diasporic; Filipina/o/x; Jennifer Laude; necropolitics; political; Pulse shooting; queer and trans

I wrote, "a rly depressing but must-read, esp on Filipino issues and an analysis of the US response to the Pulse shooting and the US colonialism and its violence towards trans women in the Filipines" - deffo a good intro to necropolitics and applying analysis of colonialism and trans issues and nationalism to recent events.


Ellison, Joy; Hoffman, Nicholas (2019): The Afterward: Sylvia Rivera and Marsha P. Johnson in the Medieval Imaginary. In Medieval Feminist Forum 55 (1), pp. 267–294. Keywords: Sylvia Rivera; Marsha P. Johnson; Medieval Imaginary; Medieval History; Philosophy of History; Trans History; Transmisogynoir; 20th Century Feminism

Henningsen, Kadin (2019): "Calling [herself] Eleanor": Gender Labor and Becoming a Woman in the Rykener Case. In Medieval Feminist Forum 55 (1), pp. 246–266. Keywords: Eleanor Rykener; Human Rights; Law; Medieval History; Medieval Human Rights; Medieval Law; Trans History; Trans Rights

 

Primary Sources



20th Century Scottish Literature

  • The Tartan Skirt, 1992-1995, Anne Forrester, 16 issues total. Scottish magazine (poems, book reviews, stories, articles) about the trans community.



Medieval Literature on Masculine Childbirth

  • Le Romanz de Saint Fanuel et de Sainte Anne

  • Aucassin et Nicolette

Comments


bottom of page