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How female cross-dressing intrigued the British literary world with Ula Klein

Check the book out here https://amzn.to/3cuWmcM

Interview Timeline

Ula Lukszo Klein is Director of Women’s and Gender Studies at the University of Wisconsin, Oshkosh. She recently published a book on women cross-dressing in 18^th century British literature and we spoke about the book and the subject. Sapphic Crossings: Cross-Dressing Women in Eighteenth-Century British Literature (Peculiar Bodies) (University of Virginia Press, 2021)

Note: This episode is rated Parental Guidance due to sexual references.

0:39 – Ula talks about how she got into writing on cross-dressing in 18th century British literature.

2:19 – Ula talks about how she focuses the book.

4:37 – Ula talks about modern female cross-dressing.

7:02 – Ula talks about reasons for cross-dressing in the past.

11:26 – Ula talks about how to differentiate between lesbianism and transgender identity in historic literature.

15:26 – Ula talks about the laws at the time about cross-dressing.

18:17 – Ula talks about the clothes worn by cross-dressers.

21:24 – Ula talks about women acting on stage.

22:46 – Ula talks about men having women dress as men.

25:07 – Ula talks about hair length, tattoos, jewelry and gender.

28:18 – Ula talks about the openness of this literature.

31:31 – Ula talks about Gothic literature and cross-dressing.

33:42 – Ula talks about being surprised at how often women would find cross-dressers attractive.

36:03 – Ula talks about Joan of Arc and the Amazon myth.

38:10 – Ula talks about her research.

42:34 – Ula talks about the use of make-up.

44:30 – Ula talks about gender norms at this time.

47:54 – Ula talks about sexuality at this time.

48:54 – Ula talks about wanting to know more about the real women who cross-dressed.

52:12 – Ula talks about one story that really moved her in the research.

1:03:26 – Ula talks about how she improved her writing style.

1:06:28 – Ula talks about 18th century tourism and queer people engaged in travel.

1:10:05 – Ula is on twitter @kleinula and at sapphiccrossings.weebly.com. She also talks about painting Star Wars art.

Links of interest

https://amzn.to/3cuWmcM

https://www.upress.virginia.edu/title/5438

https://twitter.com/kleinula

https://sapphiccrossings.weebly.com/

Contact Information

For more “Full Contact Nerd” please follow me at crisalvarez.com, on Facebook at CrisAlvarezFCN, on youtube at Cris Alvarez on twitter @CrisAlvarezFCN, on Instagram @crisalvarezscifi, and on Apple Podcasts / Google Podcasts / Stitcher / Spotify for the podcast. Please see historyrabbithole.com for a list of my dozen or so blogs and podcasts. You’re sure to find something you like.

Guests: Ula Klein

Host: Cris Alvarez

Tags: Books, audio interviews, author, academic, podcast, University of Virginia Press, literary studies, non fiction,

Check the book out here https://amzn.to/3cuWmcM

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