Queer time flies! Especially when talking to Elizabeth Freeman, who is here, now, to talk about her ground-breaking work on queer temporality, kink, care and kinship. In this momentous episode, Beth minutely lays out her thoughts on temporal drag, deep lez, erotohistoriography and chrononormativity, while also commenting on the relevance of feminist scholarship that is sometimes perceived as dated. Beth’s reading (and watching) recommendations are second to none and I think you will instantly want to dive into all of them.

CW: mentions of queerphobia, transphobia, kink, death and illness

By Beth:
“We’re Only Making Plans for Nigel. In Response to Didier Eribon.” Qui Parle 18.2 (2010), 323-27.
The Wedding Complex (Duke UP, 2002)
Time Binds: Queer Temporalities, Queer Histories (Duke UP, 2010)
Beside You in Time (Duke UP, 2019)
Co-Editor (with Tyler Bradway) of Queer Kinship: Erotic Affinities and the Politics of Belonging (Duke UP, 2022)
Co-Editor (with Ellen Samuels) of Crip Temporalities, special issue of South Atlantic Quarterly (2021)
"The Book of Love is Long and Boring: Reading Aloud, Care Work, and Children's Literature." Solicited for Russ Castronovo and Leslie Bow, eds., The Oxford Handbook of Twentieth-Century American Literature.
“Committed to the End: On Caretaking, Rereading, and Queer Theory.” Solicited for Scott Herring and Lee Wallace, eds., Long Term: Essays on Queer Commitment.
“Sacramentality and the Lesbian Premodern,” in The Lesbian Premodern, eds. Noreen Giffneyet. al. (Palgrave Macmillan, New Middle Ages Series, 2011).
“Parasymptomatic Reading: Medical Kink, Care, and the Surface/Depth Debate” Differences. Forthcoming.

Other References:
Boston Marriages
Temporal drag
Judith Butler
Deep Lez
Chrononormativity
Allyson Mitchell Walter
Walter Benjamin
Homogeneous Empty Time
ACT UP!
Simone de Beauvoir
Erotohistoriography
"Queer Kinship" with Tyler Bradway
https://www.spreaker.com/episode/48981244
Elisabeth Subrin’s Shulie
Isaac Julien
Frankfurt School
Historical consciousness
Marx
Chronopolitics
Dana Luciano’s Arranging Grief (2007)
Chronobiopolitics
Foucault’s Discipline and Punish
Biopolitics
Diane Bonder’s The Physis of Love
Cecilia Dougherty’s Coal Miner’s Granddaughter
Bertha Harris’ Lover
Panopticon
Shakers
Quakers
Scott Herring and Lee Wallace’s Long Term: Essays on Queer Committment
Sort of
Work in Progress
Djuna Barnes’ Nightwood
Faulkner

Questions you should be able to respond to after listening:

1. What is queer time? Which two ways of thinking about queer time does Elizabeth Freeman offer in the beginning of the episode?
2. Can you think of an example for temporal drag? Can you describe this phenomenon in your own words?
3. Beth talks about the importance of the body in thinking about queer rhythms. Why is the body so central and which examples does she give?
4. Which concept does Beth use to put pleasure back into history?
5. What is chrononormativity and how does it relate to heteronormativity?
6. What is a queer book you have read more than once? What did this experience of repetition do to your reading?