By writing historical romances to fill in the missing gaps in queer history, queer writers strengthen the modern community by asserting a history of sexual and bodily autonomy. Following the expansion of LGBT rights and the acceptance of queer characters in media, queer authors have fought to reclaim the history of those who have come before us, whose voices were lost to puritanical scholars and censors that twisted the public’s perception of the trajectory of LGBT lives. The narratives found in modern historical romance novels are by and large white supremacist, Christian, and upholding of colonialist values. As with all wars, to the victors go the spoils and that includes the historical narrative. What these critics fail to understand is that historical “accuracy” is often far from accurate. In recent years, as media has become more diverse, from Star Wars to romance novels, critics have claimed that portrayals of marginalized characters are historically inaccurate or done to pander to political correctness. Queer Historical Romance and the Reclamation of Identity and Power Since this issue has reared its ugly head again, I thought I would share my paper with you. Adam and Immanuel from The Winter Garden.īack in April, I presented a paper at Ithaca College’s feminist pop culture conference From Pippi to Ripley on the issues surrounding the perceived “inaccuracies” in historical romance, especially queer historical romance.
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