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Trans Literature: Transgender Histories and Genres of Embodiment, Medieval and Post-Medieval

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Trans Literature: Transgender Histories and Genres of Embodiment, Medieval and Post-Medieval Trans Literature: Transgender Histories and Genres of Embodiment, Medieval and Post-Medieval by Gabrielle M.W. Bychowski B.A. in History and English, June 2010, DePaul University M.A. in English, May 2012, the George Washington University A Dissertation submitted to The Faculty of The Columbian College of Arts and Sciences of The George Washington University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy August 31, 2017 Jonathan Hsy Associate Professor of English The Columbian College of Arts and Sciences of The George Washington University certifies that Gabrielle M.W. Bychowski passed the Final Examination for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy as of 16 May 2017. This is the final and approved form of the dissertation. Trans Literature: Transgender Histories and Genres of Embodiment, Medieval and Post-Medieval Gabrielle M.W. Bychowski Dissertation Research Committee: Jonathan Hsy, Associate Professor of English, Dissertation Director Robert McRuer, Professor of English, Committee Member David Mitchell, Professor of English, Committee Member ii © Copyright 2017 by Gabrielle M.W. Bychowski All rights reserved iii Dedication To the Trans Future of the Past iv Acknowledgements Transitions never happen alone or in isolation, telling the stories of transition even less so. Thanks must be given to an extraordinary committee, a dream team for this project. Jonathan Hsy was a committed and loyal director throughout the process as well as my primary gardener, knowing where to fertilize ideas and where to prune in order to help the rest flourish. Robert McRuer was indispensible for challenging ideas and broadening critical archives, as well as giving enthusiastic support for this project while the question was still being asked, “is this something that can be done?” David Mitchell and Sharon Snyder provided mentorship and models for what work needs to get done as well as how to get that work done. Susan Stryker jumped into the work with an enthusiasm that was a true gift in the final push, yet was also was an inspiration for this project well before she was involved, providing entrance into a hallway of discourse and history off of which this work hopes to set up a door and room. The university and program into which one pursues a Ph.D. will largely define the potential and limits of a dissertation. I am proud to say that a theoretically invested project on transgender in the Middle Ages is a piece of work that in many ways reflects the unique gifts of the George Washington University English Department: a renowned institute for Medieval Studies, a diverse faculty with leaders in queer, disability, and gender theory, as well as an established investment in innovative works that do things in different and new ways. Thank you to John Dimucci, James H. Murphy, Anne Clark Bartlett, William Fahrenbach, and Warren Schutlz for helping me forge my way into the serious study of medieval literature, history, and theology. Also, work at G.W. would be impossible without the indispensible contributions of Constance Kibler and Linda Terry. v The G.W. Medieval and Early Modern Institute provided an intellectual environment full of faculty and graduate colleagues exploring their own uniquely daring work, as well as a regular influx of visiting speakers that gave roadmaps and invitations into wider scholastic communities and conversations. Jeffrey J. Cohen and Jonathan Gil Harris remain two icons that drew me into the MEMSI family and set me down the path to finding my own meaning to the Institute’s motto, “The Future of the Past.” It was my first professional talk, only months into the program, given as part of a MEMSI Conference, that allowed me to introduce a risky and challenging question: what might transgender look like in the Middle Ages? This inquiry was then tested and reworked throughout courses and a series of workshops led Holly Dugan. Often partnering with G.W.’s MEMSI, the Babel Working Group and the Society for Medieval Feminist Scholarship were other important communities that gave early support for this project, expressing radical inclusiveness to me and my work and a willingness to turn and face the strange. Special thanks must be given for the leadership of Eileen Joy and the irreplaceable friendship of Dorothy Kim. During my tenure at the George Washington University, I was privileged to participate in the early imagining and development of the G.W. Digital Humanities Institute where I worked under the guidance of Alexa Alice Joubin. Her kindness and generosity not only strengthened my skills in medieval and early modern research as well as the digital humanities but also was a support for which I am deeply grateful. These years also saw the rise of MATCH: A Crip/Queer Reading group where faculty and graduate students would share our studies and enthusiasm. Numerous outstanding graduate colleagues had a mark on this project. Em Russell and Lubaaba vi Amatullah were kindred spirits who pushed me time and again to not try to imitate the work of others but to unapologetically hold fast to the concerns and perspectives that were important to me. Erin Sheley, Theodora Danylevich, Will Quiterio and Shyama Rajendran stayed up late with me unpacking our work and reaching for the reason behind it. Chelsey Faloona and Michael Horka, thank you for your kindness and fierceness. Alan Montroso, Patrick Henry, Sam Yates, Ray Budelman, Sukshma Vedere, and Derek Newman-Stille were all integral partners in the management of MATCH, its wider networking and programing. Leigha McReynolds, Erin Vanderwall, Mark de Cicco and Tawnya Azar helped develop and broadcast the project into new fields through an ongoing series of conferences. To my sister-friends Megan Bowman, Maria J. Carson, Brenna Markle, and Emily Hofsteadter, you were constant inspirations to me. Thank you also to D. Gilson and Haylie Swenson for your comradery and friendships. Finally, academic work is important but drains energy that was daily replenished thanks to my family. Thank you to my mother, Theresa Bychowski and the whole “Wheaton Bobsled Team,” who spent countless hours answering phone calls, driving me to airports, babysitting, and teaching me how pursue my vocation with love and dignity. Also to my father, Thomas Bychowski, thank you for teaching me how to learn tirelessly, as well as to my brother and sister, Steve and Laura Bychowski, for teaching me how to argue generously. The Reverend Rachel J. Bahr is a true partner in all things, advocating, assisting, arguing, and inspiring me; you are my constant champion. At last, to my children: you are ever the precious joys in my life that remind me each night as we read together, talk over dinner, or play games that the impact of scholarship goes far beyond the academy, touching on the formation and hearts that carry the future of our past. vii Abstract Trans Literature: Transgender Histories and Genres of Embodiment, Medieval and Post-Medieval This project seeks to develop a literary theory of trans discourse that better allows for the study of transgender prior to the coinage of identity terminology in the 20th century. By examining transgender as an array of genres of embodiment (based on Sandy Stone's genre theory from the Posttranssexual Manifesto) with distinct but intersecting cultural genealogies, a series of trans histories can be told that connect the way trans figures function within literature to the production of trans identities. To demonstrate this theory, the late medieval period (between 1350 and 1450) is selected as this is the first time in which literature began to written in a form resembling modern English, allowing for a larger degree of historical division with contemporary texts (mostly drawn from the 1990s) while still operating within the same language. Each of the four chapters are structured to (1) provide an analysis of a different genre of embodiment, exploring the development of certain trans identities as tied to the production of certain forms of trans literature, and (2) examine case studies within the genre, one from late medieval England and one from contemporary America, in order to demonstrate how the form of literature enacts transhistorical social functions in historically specific ways. A critical outcome of the study is the development of a trans way of reading and composing literature, an expansion of transgender history into the medieval period, and a reevaluation of modern texts as a cultural inheritance of medieval discourses that lay narrative foundations for later iterations of trans literature and identity. viii Table of Contents Dedication………...............................................................................................................iv Acknowledgments………....................................................................................................v Abstract of Dissertation ...................................................................................................viii Introduction…………….………………….…………………...........................................1 Chapter 1: Exempla of Transsexuals……….....................................................................87 Chapter 2: Confessions of Dysphoria..............................................................................166 Chapter 3: Hagiographies of Transvestites......................................................................242 Chapter 4: Pilgrimages of Hermaphrodites………..........................................................326 Conclusion: Swerves and Swervers
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