The Lesbian Historic Motif Podcast

On the Shelf for October 2017 The Lesbian Historic Motif Podcast - Episode 22 with Heather Rose Jones Your monthly update on what the Lesbian Historic Motif Project has been doing. In this episode we talk about: Recent and upcoming publications covered on the blog Books on the queer history of Boston and on the concept of the Boston Marriage in modern psychology Medieval penitential manuals that a...

The Highwaywoman Special The Lesbian Historic Motif Podcast - Episode 21 with Heather Rose Jones This is my first “fifth week special” episode, when I have to come up with something outside my 4-topic rotation. Today we have a multi-media look at female highwaymen in history, song, and story, including five lesbian highwaywoman romances. In this episode we talk about: The historic era of the highw...

What Medieval Lesbians Did in Bed The Lesbian Historic Motif Podcast - Episode 20 with Heather Rose Jones This episode looks at the historic evidence for the specific sexual techniques enjoyed between women in the middle ages and Renaissance. Caution: although this essay isn’t intended as erotica, it does include a lot of detailed technical descriptions of bodies, sex acts, and sex toys. The conte...

Book Appreciation with Genevieve Fortin The Lesbian Historic Motif Podcast - Episode 19 with Heather Rose Jones In the Book Appreciation segments, our featured authors (or your host) will talk about one or more favorite books with queer female characters in a historic setting. In this episode Genevieve Fortin recommends her favorite queer historical novel: Patience and Sarah by Isabell Miller. A t...

Interview with Genevieve Fortin The Lesbian Historic Motif Podcast - Episode 18 with Heather Rose Jones A series of interviews with authors of historically-based fiction featuring queer women. In this episode we talk about: How interviewing Franco-American families in New England inspired Water’s Edge Her love for literature from ca. 1900 and the decadent movement’s exploration of sexuality Resear...

On the Shelf for September 2017 The Lesbian Historic Motif Podcast - Episode 17 with Heather Rose Jones Your monthly update on what the Lesbian Historic Motif Project has been doing. In this episode we talk about: Why I’m recording this more than a month before it airs, and how you’re all missing out on hearing about my trip to Europe, which will have just finished then. Recent and upcoming public...

Beguines, Boston Marriage, and Bed Death: Historic Archetypes of Asexual Lesbianism The Lesbian Historic Motif Podcast - Episode 16 with Heather Rose Jones This show takes a tour through a variety of social models in European history that recognized committed romantic partnerships between women that did not focus on sexual desire. In this episode we talk about: Emotional partnerships between women...

Book Appreciation with Catherine Lundoff The Lesbian Historic Motif Podcast - Episode 15 with Heather Rose Jones In the Book Appreciation segments, our featured authors (or your host) will talk about one or more favorite books with queer female characters in a historic setting. In this episode Catherine Lundoff recommends some favorite queer historical novels: Tomoe Gozen by Jessica Amanda Salmons...

Interview with Catherine Lundoff The Lesbian Historic Motif Podcast - Episode 14 with Heather Rose Jones A series of interviews with authors of historically-based fiction featuring queer women. In this episode we talk about: How Alexandre Dumas and quitting law school started Catherine’s writing career Sources of historic inspiration Her favorite genres Christopher Marlowe and Shakespeare’s fictio...

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 -- Me...

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. Sh...

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 thei...

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...

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 den...

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 everyd...

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 f...

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...

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...

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. Th...

The Goblin Market (Reprise) The Lesbian Historic Motif Podcast - Episode 3 with Heather Rose Jones This is an analysis and recitation of the poem “The Goblin Market” by Christina Rossetti, with special attention to its homoerotic themes.  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/bl...

Same-Sex Marriage in Restoration England The Lesbian Historic Motif Podcast - Episode 2 with Heather Rose Jones The marriage of two women in 17th century England raises the question of bigamy.  In this episode we talk about:  The marriage between Amy Poulter (as James Howard) and Arabella Hunt The subsequent lawsuit to dissolve the marriage This topic is discussed in one or more entries of the Les...

Ordinary Women The Lesbian Historic Motif Podcast - Episode 1 with Heather Rose Jones The debut episode of a podcast about women loving women in history and literature and the fiction we write about them. In this episode we talk about: Greta von Mösskirch who loved girls in 16th century German Two 15th century French peasant women, Jehanne and Laurence, whose love affair ended in violence and a la...