The Coming of Age of Transgender Literature: Reassessing Genre, Gender and Themes in Contemporary Fiction
Lead Research Organisation:
UNIVERSITY OF EXETER
Department Name: English and Creative Writing
Abstract
My research project analyses contemporary transgender literature's move from autobiography to fiction. Over the past decade, transgender representation has reached a 'tipping point.' The recent outburst of transgender literary production has changed how transgender existence is discussed, prompting a 'coming of age' for transgender literature. Three questions guide my research:
1. What new literary genres and styles are deployed by transgender authors and with what purpose?
2. How and why has the representation of gender in fiction changed in comparison to autobiographical accounts?
3. What other interpretative avenues, apart from gender medicalisation, have transgender authors adopted to narrate their experiences?
I have selected five novels as my corpus: Jordy Rosenberg's Confessions of the Fox (2018), Alison Rumfitt's Tell Me I'm Worthless (2021), Torrey Peters' Detransition, Baby (2021), and Akwaeke Emezi's Freshwater (2018) and The Death of Vivek Oji (2020). Although autobiographical features persist, transgender authors are embracing other literary genres. Rosenberg resorts to historical fiction to exhume the lives of transgender people and to reclaim "our history - fragmented and fugitive." He revisits the story of 18th-century thief Jack Sheppard, characterising him as a transgender boy. Rumfitt adopts the Gothic novel to show how "[g]hosts are born from trauma and violence" highlighting an affinity between 1980s radical feminists and today's 'gender criticals.' The departure from mere autobiography has sparked two thematic changes. Firstly, de-binarised representations of gender. Peters challenges hegemonic gender theories. Confronted by the prospect of fatherhood after his detransition, Ames' character reflects, "I am trans, but I don't need to do trans." This statement demonstrates how the 'wrong body' trope is no longer sufficient to portray the variety of transgender experiences. Emezi intertwines transness with ogbanje spirituality, a "malignant form of reincarnation." Surgeries become "a bridge across realities", a tool not only for affirming gender, but also for transcending human/body limitations. Secondly, the adoption of new narrative elements/techniques allows transgender authors to broaden the scope of their storytelling. No longer confined to autobiography and their transition journey, transgender authors address other issues, e.g. trans rights, a queer reconfiguration of parenthood, and the intersections between race and gender. Form is thus connected to content: the plasticity of literary genres represents the transitory fluidity of gendered experience, shifting the thematic focus from transgender identity - as something fixed and prescriptive - to transgender life as a process that entails but is not limited to fixed (gender) categories.
I will consider the two ways that contemporary transgender authors position themselves. On one hand, Sandy Stone's posttranssexuality urges transgender people to "speak from outside the boundaries of gender" and challenge cisheteronormativity. Conversely, Jay Prosser expresses scepticism towards a transgender future that "project[s] gender identity beyond the body", thereby refusing sexual difference. In response, my project cultivates new theorisations of gender and identity through their creative reimaginations in contemporary transgender fiction. Apart from transgender, queer and feminist studies, my project contributes to social studies, medical humanities, critical race and postcolonial studies through my engagement with LGBTQ+ politics/activism, queer spiritualities, and intersectional and transnational approaches to gender.
1. What new literary genres and styles are deployed by transgender authors and with what purpose?
2. How and why has the representation of gender in fiction changed in comparison to autobiographical accounts?
3. What other interpretative avenues, apart from gender medicalisation, have transgender authors adopted to narrate their experiences?
I have selected five novels as my corpus: Jordy Rosenberg's Confessions of the Fox (2018), Alison Rumfitt's Tell Me I'm Worthless (2021), Torrey Peters' Detransition, Baby (2021), and Akwaeke Emezi's Freshwater (2018) and The Death of Vivek Oji (2020). Although autobiographical features persist, transgender authors are embracing other literary genres. Rosenberg resorts to historical fiction to exhume the lives of transgender people and to reclaim "our history - fragmented and fugitive." He revisits the story of 18th-century thief Jack Sheppard, characterising him as a transgender boy. Rumfitt adopts the Gothic novel to show how "[g]hosts are born from trauma and violence" highlighting an affinity between 1980s radical feminists and today's 'gender criticals.' The departure from mere autobiography has sparked two thematic changes. Firstly, de-binarised representations of gender. Peters challenges hegemonic gender theories. Confronted by the prospect of fatherhood after his detransition, Ames' character reflects, "I am trans, but I don't need to do trans." This statement demonstrates how the 'wrong body' trope is no longer sufficient to portray the variety of transgender experiences. Emezi intertwines transness with ogbanje spirituality, a "malignant form of reincarnation." Surgeries become "a bridge across realities", a tool not only for affirming gender, but also for transcending human/body limitations. Secondly, the adoption of new narrative elements/techniques allows transgender authors to broaden the scope of their storytelling. No longer confined to autobiography and their transition journey, transgender authors address other issues, e.g. trans rights, a queer reconfiguration of parenthood, and the intersections between race and gender. Form is thus connected to content: the plasticity of literary genres represents the transitory fluidity of gendered experience, shifting the thematic focus from transgender identity - as something fixed and prescriptive - to transgender life as a process that entails but is not limited to fixed (gender) categories.
I will consider the two ways that contemporary transgender authors position themselves. On one hand, Sandy Stone's posttranssexuality urges transgender people to "speak from outside the boundaries of gender" and challenge cisheteronormativity. Conversely, Jay Prosser expresses scepticism towards a transgender future that "project[s] gender identity beyond the body", thereby refusing sexual difference. In response, my project cultivates new theorisations of gender and identity through their creative reimaginations in contemporary transgender fiction. Apart from transgender, queer and feminist studies, my project contributes to social studies, medical humanities, critical race and postcolonial studies through my engagement with LGBTQ+ politics/activism, queer spiritualities, and intersectional and transnational approaches to gender.
Organisations
People |
ORCID iD |
| Felice Balzano (Student) |