The Lesbian Historic Motif Podcast

By Heather Rose Jones

A show about queer women in history and historic literature, plus coverage of the field of sapphic historical fiction. Content note: May include discussions of sex within an academic context.... more

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FAQs about The Lesbian Historic Motif Podcast:

How many episodes does The Lesbian Historic Motif Podcast have?

The podcast currently has 353 episodes available.

The Lesbian Historic Motif Podcast episodes:

September 15, 2020On the Shelf for August 2017 - The Lesbian Historic Motif Podcast Episode 13
On the Shelf for August 2017
The Lesbian Historic Motif Podcast - Episode 13 with Heather Rose Jones
Your monthly update on what the Lesbian Historic Motif Project has been doing.
In this episode we talk about:
The organization of the new weekly schedule li>
Recent and upcoming publications covered on the blog
Stepto, Michele & Gabriel Stepto (translators). Catalina de Erauso. Lieutenant Nun -- Memoir of a Basque Transvestite in the New World. Boston: Beacon Press, 1996. ISBN 0-8070-7073-4li>
Velasco, Sherry. 2000. The Lieutenant Nun: Transgenderism, Lesbian Desire and Catalina de Erauso. University of Texas Press. ISBN 0-292-78746-4
Velasco, Sherry. 2011. Lesbians in Early Modern Spain. Vanderbilt University Press, Nashville. ISBN 978-0-8265-1750-0
Announcing this month’s author guest, Catherine Lundoff
New and forthcoming fiction
(The new and forthcoming fiction segment starts in a later month.)
Ask Sappho: Sheena asks: “I would like a kind of breakdown of when it became illegal and legal to be lesbian. What I am finding interesting is that it wasn't always a big taboo what changed?”
The following sources provide more information on the discussion topics:
Crawford, Patricia & Sara Mendelson. 1995. "Sexual Identities in Early Modern England: The Marriage of Two Women in 1680" in Gender and History vol 7, no 3: 362-377.
Crompton, Louis. 1985. “The Myth of Lesbian Impunity: Capital Laws from 1270 to 1791” in Licata, Salvatore J. & Robert P. Petersen (eds). The Gay Past: A Collection of Historical Essays. Harrington Park Press, New York. ISBN 0-918393-11-6 (Also published as Journal of Homosexuality, Vol. 6, numbers 1/2, Fall/Winter 1980.)
Lansing, Carol. 2005. “Donna con Donna? A 1295 Inquest into Female Sodomy” in Studies in Medieval and Renaissance History: Sexuality and Culture in Medieval and Renaissance Europe, Third Series vol. II: 109-122.
Puff, Helmut. 2000. "Female Sodomy: The Trial of Katherina Hetzeldorfer (1477)" in Journal of Medieval and Early Modern Studies: 30:1, 41-61.
Sears, Clare. 2015. Arresting Dress: Cross-Dressing, Law, and Fascination in Nineteenth-Century San Francisco. Durham: Duke University Press. ISBN 978-0-8223-5758-2
A transcript of this podcast is available here.
Links to the Lesbian Historic Motif Project Online
Website: http://alpennia.com/lhmp
Blog: http://alpennia.com/blog
RSS: http://alpennia.com/blog/feed/
Twitter: @LesbianMotif
Discord: Contact Heather for an invitation to the Alpennia/LHMP Discord server
The Lesbian Historic Motif Project Patreon
Links to Heather Online
Website: http://alpennia.com
Email: Heather Rose Jones
Twitter: @heatherosejones
Facebook: Heather Rose Jones (author page)
...more
13min
September 14, 2020Catalina de Erauso - The Lesbian Historic Motif Podcast Episode 12
Catalina de Erauso
The Lesbian Historic Motif Podcast - Episode 12 with Heather Rose Jones
This is a brief tour through the life of an early 17th century Basque woman (or possibly trans man--though it’s tricky to use any sort of modern category label) who escaped from a convent at age 15, began living as a man, and went off to the Spanish colonies in the New World to seek fortune and adventure. She found plenty of adventure.
In this episode we talk about:
The basic facts of Catalina’s life
Why it’s difficult to try to apply modern categories of gender and sexuality to historic individuals
The literary and pop culture context of early 17th century Spain that may have shaped how Catalina’s story was told--and even perhaps inspired her actions
Catalina’s romantic and erotic encounters with women, and why they’re a bit less satisfying to a modern audience than we might wish
Some exciting new changes to the Lesbian Historic Motif Podcast
Books mentioned
The full text of Catalina de Erauso’s autobiography can be found in translation in:
Stepto, Michele & Gabriel Stepto (translators). 1996. Catalina de Erauso. Lieutenant Nun -- Memoir of a Basque Transvestite in the New World. Boston: Beacon Press. ISBN 0-8070-7073-4
The other major sources used for this podcast are:
Velasco, Sherry. 2000. The Lieutenant Nun: Transgenderism, Lesbian Desire and Catalina de Erauso. University of Texas Press. ISBN 0-292-78746-4
Velasco, Sherry. 2011. Lesbians in Early Modern Spain. Vanderbilt University Press, Nashville. ISBN 978-0-8265-1750-0
This topic is discussed in one or more entries of the Lesbian Historic Motif Project here:
Catalina de Erauso
A transcript of this podcast is available here.
Links to the Lesbian Historic Motif Project Online
Website: http://alpennia.com/lhmp
Blog: http://alpennia.com/blog
RSS: http://alpennia.com/blog/feed/
Twitter: @LesbianMotif
Discord: Contact Heather for an invitation to the Alpennia/LHMP Discord server
The Lesbian Historic Motif Project Patreon
Links to Heather Online
Website: http://alpennia.com
Email: Heather Rose Jones
Twitter: @heatherosejones
Facebook: Heather Rose Jones (author page)
...more
31min
September 14, 2020Sappho: The Translations - The Lesbian Historic Motif Podcast Episode 11
Sappho: The Translations
The Lesbian Historic Motif Podcast - Episode 11 with Heather Rose Jones
In this show we’ll look at the legacy of Sappho from the Middle Ages up through the 19th century: the various images people had of her, how people used her as a symbol, the way those images affected how her poetry was translated into everyday languages, and how poets used her themes and imagery in their own work.
In this episode we talk about:
How much poetry did Sappho write, and how much survives? Why was it lost, and why were the bits we have preserved?
What was the changing image of Sappho from the middle ages through the 19th century? How did people reconcile their admiration for Sappho’s poetry and their disapproval of homosexuality?
Who translated Sappho’s works and how did their opinions of her affect those translations?
The show will include recitations of the following poems:
Ode to Aphrodite & Fragment #31: Jane McIntosh Snyder from Lesbian Desire in the Lyrics of Sappho (20th century)
“On a Lady Named Beloved” inspired by fragment #31: Anne de Rohan (1617), translated from the French
Fragment #31: John Hall (1652)
Fragment #31: Joseph Addison (1735)
Ode to Aphrodite & Fragment #31: Abrose Philips (1748)
“Eleanore” inspired by Fragment #31: Lord Tennyson (1832)
Fragment #31 & “Imitation of Sappho” inspired by Fragment #31: Mary Hewitt (1845)
Books used as source material
Addison, Joseph. 1735. The Works of Anacreon, Translated into English Verse, with Notes Explanatory and Poetical. To which are added the Odes, Fragments, and Epigrams of Sappho. London.
Castle, Terry (ed). 2003. The Literature of Lesbianism: A Historical Anthology from Ariosto to Stonewall. Columbia University Press, New York. ISBN 0-231-12510-0
Hall, John. 1652. Sappho’s On the Sublime.
Snyder, Jane. 1997. Lesbian Desire in the Lyrics of Sappho. New York: Columbia University Press.
Wharton, Henry Thornton. 1887. Sappho: Memoir, Text, Selected Renderings, and a Literal Translation. London.
This topic is discussed in one or more entries of the Lesbian Historic Motif Project here:
Sappho
A transcript of this podcast is available here.
Links to the Lesbian Historic Motif Project Online
Website: http://alpennia.com/lhmp
Blog: http://alpennia.com/blog
RSS: http://alpennia.com/blog/feed/
Twitter: @LesbianMotif
Discord: Contact Heather for an invitation to the Alpennia/LHMP Discord server
The Lesbian Historic Motif Project Patreon
Links to Heather Online
Website: http://alpennia.com
Email: Heather Rose Jones
Twitter: @heatherosejones
Facebook: Heather Rose Jones (author page)
...more
26min
September 14, 2020Sappho of Lesbos - The Woman and the Legend - The Lesbian Historic Motif Podcast Episode 10
Sappho of Lesbos - The Woman and the Legend
The Lesbian Historic Motif Podcast - Episode 10 with Heather Rose Jones
As a special Pride Month celebration, I’m recording a pair of episodes talking about the poet Sappho: what we know about her life and context, the legends that sprang up about her, what people of various ages thought of her, and most especially what they knew of her poetry, how they interpreted and even imitated it.
In this episode we talk about:
The known facts of Sappho’s life
What classical Greek and Roman writers said about her
Possible explanations for some of the contradictory stories about her
The social context for Sappho’s expressions of love and desire for women, and what sort of relationships were most likely involved
This topic is discussed in one or more entries of the Lesbian Historic Motif Project here:
Sappho
A transcript of this podcast is available here.
Links to the Lesbian Historic Motif Project Online
Website: http://alpennia.com/lhmp
Blog: http://alpennia.com/blog
RSS: http://alpennia.com/blog/feed/
Twitter: @LesbianMotif
Discord: Contact Heather for an invitation to the Alpennia/LHMP Discord server
The Lesbian Historic Motif Project Patreon
Links to Heather Online
Website: http://alpennia.com
Email: Heather Rose Jones
Twitter: @heatherosejones
Facebook: Heather Rose Jones (author page)
...more
15min
September 14, 2020The Travels and Adventures of Mademoiselle de Richelieu - The Lesbian Historic Motif Podcast Episode 9
The Travels and Adventures of Mademoiselle de Richelieu
The Lesbian Historic Motif Podcast - Episode 9 with Heather Rose Jones
This mid-18th century novel tells the story of two women romping through Europe in male disguise, breaking hearts, having narrow escapes, falling in love with each other, and ending up deciding to share the rest of their lives together. The 18th century prose is rather dense, but I’ve tried to pick selections that show why I find it fascinating.
In this episode we talk about:
The historic context of the novel
An overall plot summary
Readings of selected excerpts that illustrate the romantic relationship between the two main characters
Books mentioned
The full text of The Travels and Adventures of Mademoiselle de Richelieu is accessible primarily through academic libraries, but is available in electronic facsimile. WorldCat has the following listings for it:
The Travels and Adventures of Mademoiselle de Richelieu
This topic is discussed in one or more entries of the Lesbian Historic Motif Project here:
The Travels and Adventures of Mademoiselle de Richelieu (Erskine)
A transcript of this podcast is available here.
Links to the Lesbian Historic Motif Project Online
Website: http://alpennia.com/lhmp
Blog: http://alpennia.com/blog
RSS: http://alpennia.com/blog/feed/
Twitter: @LesbianMotif
Discord: Contact Heather for an invitation to the Alpennia/LHMP Discord server
The Lesbian Historic Motif Project Patreon
Links to Heather Online
Website: http://alpennia.com
Email: Heather Rose Jones
Twitter: @heatherosejones
Facebook: Heather Rose Jones (author page)
...more
42min
September 14, 2020Medieval Love Poetry - The Lesbian Historic Motif Podcast Episode 8
Medieval Love Poetry
The Lesbian Historic Motif Podcast - Episode 8 with Heather Rose Jones
This episode looks at examples of courtly love--both in poetry and in prose--expressed between two women, or by two female characters.
In this episode we talk about:
The context and conventions of the “courtly love” genre
The problems of relating the sentiments expressed in courtly love literature to everyday lives and experiences
Scholarly blind spots when interpreting same-sex expressions of courtly love
Love, desire, and friendship between women in the 13th century French story L’Escoufle
The 13th century troubariz (female troubador) Bieiris de Romans and the love poem she wrote to a woman named Maria
A passionate poem of love and longing written by one anonymous 12th century German woman to another
Books mentioned
The full text of Na Maria by Bieris de Romans can be found in: Bogin, Meg. 1976. The Women Troubadours. Paddington Press, Ltd., New York. ISBN 0-8467-0113-8
The full text of the Tegernsee MS poem can be found in: Matter, E. Ann. 1989. “My Sister, My Spouse: Woman-Identified Women in Medieval Christianity” in Weaving the Visions: New Patterns in Feminist Spirituality, eds. Judith Plaskow & Carol P. Christ. Harper & Row, San Francisco.
This topic is discussed in one or more entries of the Lesbian Historic Motif Project here:
L’Escoufle
Na Maria (Bieiris de Romans)
Tegernsee ms
A transcript of this podcast is available here.
Links to the Lesbian Historic Motif Project Online
Website: http://alpennia.com/lhmp
Blog: http://alpennia.com/blog
RSS: http://alpennia.com/blog/feed/
Twitter: @LesbianMotif
Discord: Contact Heather for an invitation to the Alpennia/LHMP Discord server
The Lesbian Historic Motif Project Patreon
Links to Heather Online
Website: http://alpennia.com
Email: Heather Rose Jones
Twitter: @heatherosejones
Facebook: Heather Rose Jones (author page)
...more
15min
September 14, 2020Aphra Behn - The Lesbian Historic Motif Podcast Episode 7
Aphra Behn
The Lesbian Historic Motif Podcast - Episode 7 with Heather Rose Jones
This episode is about the 17th century novelist, playwright, and spy Aphra Behn.
In this episode we talk about:
Behn’s careers in espionage and literature
Her bisexuality and some of the complexities of how desire between women was portrayed in the 17th century
Poem: VERSES design'd by Mrs. A. Behn, to be sent to a fair Lady, that desir'd she would absent her?self, to cure her Love. Left unfinish'd
Poem: The Dream
Poem: To the Fair Clarinda Who made love to me, Imagin'd more than woman
Dedicatory text to Hortense Mancini, Duchesse Mazarine
Books mentioned:
Todd, Janet. 1996. The Secret Life of Aphra Behn. Rutgers Univ Press, New Brunswick. ISBN 0-8135-2455-5
If you’d like to read some historical fiction that includes an entirely imagined meeting between Aphra and Hortense Mancini: ”The Mazarinette and the Musketeer” by Heather Rose Jones
This topic is discussed in one or more entries of the Lesbian Historic Motif Project here:
To the Fair Clorinda (Aphra Behn)
A transcript of this podcast is available here.
Links to the Lesbian Historic Motif Project Online
Website: http://alpennia.com/lhmp
Blog: http://alpennia.com/blog
RSS: http://alpennia.com/blog/feed/
Twitter: @LesbianMotif
Discord: Contact Heather for an invitation to the Alpennia/LHMP Discord server
The Lesbian Historic Motif Project Patreon
Links to Heather Online
Website: http://alpennia.com
Email: Heather Rose Jones
Twitter: @heatherosejones
Facebook: Heather Rose Jones (author page)
...more
11min
September 14, 2020Catherine Vizzani - The Lesbian Historic Motif Podcast Episode 6
Catherine Vizzani
The Lesbian Historic Motif Podcast - Episode 6 with Heather Rose Jones
This is the exciting and somewhat surprising story of an 18th century Italian woman who received a surprising level of acceptance for her sexual orientation, both from her parents and from an employer.
In this episode we talk about:
The outline of Catherine Vizzani’s life
Readings from the English translation of her biography, in all their 18th century glory
The full text of the 1755 English translations of Catherine Vizzani’s biography can be found here.
This topic is discussed in one or more entries of the Lesbian Historic Motif Project here:
The True History and Adventures of Catharine Vizzani / Breve storia della vita di Catterina Vizzani (Giovanni Battista Bianchi)
A transcript of this podcast is available here.
Links to the Lesbian Historic Motif Project Online
Website: http://alpennia.com/lhmp
Blog: http://alpennia.com/blog
RSS: http://alpennia.com/blog/feed/
Twitter: @LesbianMotif
Discord: Contact Heather for an invitation to the Alpennia/LHMP Discord server
The Lesbian Historic Motif Project Patreon
Links to Heather Online
Website: http://alpennia.com
Email: Heather Rose Jones
Twitter: @heatherosejones
Facebook: Heather Rose Jones (author page)
...more
15min
September 14, 2020Laudomia Loves Margaret - The Lesbian Historic Motif Podcast Episode 5
Laudomia Loves Margaret
The Lesbian Historic Motif Podcast - Episode 5 with Heather Rose Jones
The 16th century romance between Sienese poet and intellectual Laudomia Forteguerri and Duchess Margaret of Austria.
In this episode we talk about:
Translations and the context of the poetry Laudomia wrote for Margaret can be found in:
Eisenbichler, Konrad. “Laudomia Forteguerri Loves Margaret of Austria” in Same Sex Love and Desire Among Women in the Middle Ages (ed. By Francesca Canadé Sautman & Pamela Sheingorn), Palgrave, New York, 2001.
This topic is discussed in one or more entries of the Lesbian Historic Motif Project here:
Laudomia Forteguerri
Margaret Duchess of Austria/Parma
A transcript of this podcast is available here.
Links to the Lesbian Historic Motif Project Online
Website: http://alpennia.com/lhmp
Blog: http://alpennia.com/blog
RSS: http://alpennia.com/blog/feed/
Twitter: @LesbianMotif
Discord: Contact Heather for an invitation to the Alpennia/LHMP Discord server
The Lesbian Historic Motif Project Patreon
Links to Heather Online
Website: http://alpennia.com
Email: Heather Rose Jones
Twitter: @heatherosejones
Facebook: Heather Rose Jones (author page)
...more
14min
September 11, 2020Bosom Sex - The Lesbian Historic Motif Podcast Episode 4
Bosom Sex
The Lesbian Historic Motif Podcast - Episode 4 with Heather Rose Jones
The lives and loves of two African-American women in the post Civil War era, as discovered in their correspondence.
In this episode we talk about:
Who were Addie Brown ad Rebecca Primus?
What did their families and communities think about their relationship?
The ways in which individual histories can surprise us.
This topic is discussed in one or more entries of the Lesbian Historic Motif Project here: Addie Brown & Rebecca Primus
A transcript of this podcast is available here.
Links to the Lesbian Historic Motif Project Online
Website: http://alpennia.com/lhmp
Blog: http://alpennia.com/blog
RSS: http://alpennia.com/blog/feed/
Twitter: @LesbianMotif
Discord: Contact Heather for an invitation to the Alpennia/LHMP Discord server
The Lesbian Historic Motif Project Patreon
Links to Heather Online
Website: http://alpennia.com
Email: Heather Rose Jones
Twitter: @heatherosejones
Facebook: Heather Rose Jones (author page)
...more
8min

FAQs about The Lesbian Historic Motif Podcast:

How many episodes does The Lesbian Historic Motif Podcast have?

The podcast currently has 353 episodes available.

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