{"id":1975,"date":"2015-05-15T16:46:51","date_gmt":"2015-05-15T06:46:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.perilousadventures.net\/blog\/?p=1975"},"modified":"2015-05-15T16:52:19","modified_gmt":"2015-05-15T06:52:19","slug":"uchronic-or-queer-in-no-time-wilful-subjects-in-historical-fiction","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.perilousadventures.net\/blog\/?p=1975","title":{"rendered":"Uchronic, or queer in no time: wilful subjects in historical fiction"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"wilfulchild\"<\/a>
Illustration for ‘Das eigensinnige Kind’ (The Wilful Child<\/a>), a tale collected by the Brothers Grimm. Illustrator Unknown.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

And one more. This is a draft abstract for a paper I hope to deliver at the annual conference of the Australasian Association of Writing Programs (AAWP<\/a>), in Melbourne this November. The conference title is: Writing the Ghost Train: Rewriting, Remaking, Rediscovering<\/a><\/em>.<\/p>\n

\n

Abstract: Uchronic<\/em>, or queer in no time: wilful subjects in historical fiction<\/strong><\/p>\n

Works of historical fiction by and about queer women have been characterised as largely ideological texts, concerned with inserting (imagined) queer stories and queer perspectives into the historical and\/or literary landscape. These so-called \u2018revisionist\u2019 texts have persistently been read largely in terms of their relationship to both historical research and scholarship, and the genre of historical fiction.<\/p>\n

In this paper, I explore the ways in which reading (and writing) these texts in the context of so-called Uchronia<\/a> <\/em>(a neologism combining the Green prefix ou-<\/em>, meaning \u2018no\u2019 with the chronos<\/em>\/time: \u2018in no time\u2019), or alternative histories, provides a way of understanding such texts not in terms of interpreting or re-interpreting the past, but instead in creating narratives that exist \u2018in no time\u2019.<\/p>\n

Such works can, in this way, be read not as predominantly in conversation with the past, but in conversation with a range of temporalities including but not limited to the past, the present, and the future.<\/p>\n

The paper also explores the wilful nature of such writing, drawing on Sara Ahmed\u2019s Wilful Subjects<\/em><\/a> (2014), and explores\u00a0the ways\u00a0in which\u00a0queer uchronic<\/em> writing is both an enactment of wilfulness on the part of the writer, and a narrative embodiment of wilfully queer characters.<\/p>\n

Finally, the paper explores the ethical consequences of wilfully writing \u2018in no time\u2019, through an exploration of key works by Sarah Waters<\/a> and Jeanette Winterson<\/a>, as well as through an examination of my own Uchronic <\/em>works and storytelling practices.<\/p>\n

\n

References<\/strong><\/p>\n

Ahmed, Sara 2014 Wilful Subjects<\/em>, Durham, North Carolina, Duke University Press.<\/p>\n

Bilger, Audrey n.d. \u2018Jeanette Winterson, The Art of Fiction No. 150\u2019<\/a> The Paris Review<\/em> n.d., viewed 10 May 2015, < http:\/\/www.theparisreview.org\/interviews\/1188\/the-art-of-fiction-no-150-jeanette-winterson>.<\/p>\n

Ransom, Amy J 2003 \u2018Alternate History and Uchronia: Some Questions of Terminology and Genre\u2019 Foundation: The International Review of Science Fiction<\/em>, vol. 32, issue 87, pp. 58-72.<\/p>\n

Serchay, David S 2001 \u2018Uchronia\u2019 Library Journal<\/em>, vol. 126, issue 1, p. 34.<\/p>\n

Sulway, Nike 2013 Rupetta<\/a>, <\/em>Leyburn, North Yorkshire, Tartarus Press.<\/p>\n

Waters, Sarah 1998 Tipping the Velvet<\/em>, London, Virago Press.<\/p>\n

Waters, Sarah 2014 The Paying Guests<\/em>, London, Virago Press.<\/p>\n

Winterson, Jeanette 1987, The Passion<\/em>, London, Vintage.<\/p>\n

Winterson, Jeanette 1989, Sexing the Cherry<\/em>, London, Bloomsbury Press.<\/p>\n

Winterson, Jeanette 1995, Art Objects: Essays in Ecstasy and Effrontery<\/em>, London, Vintage.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

And one more. This is a draft abstract for a paper I hope to deliver at the annual conference of the Australasian Association of Writing Programs (AAWP), in Melbourne this November. The conference title is: Writing the Ghost Train: Rewriting, Remaking, Rediscovering. Abstract: Uchronic, or queer in no time: wilful subjects in historical fiction Works…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1976,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_seo_schema_type":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[916,653,383,193,167,667,327],"tags":[656,1166,1159,675,1158,1160,1165,1164,1157,1163,1162,1161,1156],"class_list":["post-1975","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-fairy-tales","category-academic-and-other-research","category-on-living","category-on-reading","category-on-writing","category-research","category-rupetta","tag-aawp","tag-art-objects-essays-in-ecstasy-and-effrontery","tag-jeanette-winterson","tag-queer","tag-sara-ahmed","tag-sarah-waters","tag-the-passion","tag-the-paying-guests","tag-the-wilful-child","tag-tipping-the-velvet","tag-uchronia","tag-wilful-subjects","tag-writing-the-ghost-train"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4LH1G-vR","jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.perilousadventures.net\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/wilfulchild.jpg?fit=201%2C251","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.perilousadventures.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1975","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.perilousadventures.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.perilousadventures.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.perilousadventures.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.perilousadventures.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1975"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/www.perilousadventures.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1975\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1979,"href":"http:\/\/www.perilousadventures.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1975\/revisions\/1979"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.perilousadventures.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1976"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.perilousadventures.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1975"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.perilousadventures.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1975"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.perilousadventures.net\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1975"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}