Out at Ranger’s House is a tour investigating LGBTQIA+ stories from the ancient world to the present day, researched and written by Young Producers. We’ve been speaking to early career researchers and students focusing on queer studies about what this tour means to them, and what they’d like to see more of in the future.
We’ve been talking to Tasha (she/her), an early careers researcher currently studying for her MA in Literature and Culture.
MEGAN: How would you introduce yourself, what have you been working on lately?
TASHA: I’m a postgrad student focusing on the late nineteenth century. Recently, I’ve been writing my dissertation on spiritualist fiction in the late nineteenth century, and how women utilise the séance as a locale for transgressive behaviour. My research interests are queer studies, with a broad time period of 1870-1910 but a narrower focus on the 1890s, and I’m interested in the fiction and poetry of queer people and women, and queer women!
MEGAN: That sounds awesome. Why is queer history and literature something that interests you, and how long have you been interested in it?
TASHA: I’ve been interested in queer history and literature since I did a module in my second year on the fin-de-siècle, the end of the nineteenth century, where Oscar Wilde and Alfred Douglas stand out as key figures. I love seeing how queer people navigated life in a world where they didn’t have the language available that we do today. Also I’m gay, but that’s the short answer.
MEGAN: I love that, I feel like the last part is a common theme for a lot of people.
TASHA: Generally speaking, as well, who wants to read about the status quo? I find it much more interesting to read and study the people that went against that.
MEGAN: Yeah, I hope that the Ranger’s House tour does something to help shed light on those overlooked people who did go against the status quo.
TASHA: Yeah, queer people have always existed, as have allies. It’s just been more underground in the past.
MEGAN: Definitely. What do you think about Out at Ranger’s? Has anything jumped out at you from the web content?
TASHA: Artemis! I love the exploration of her as a potentially lesbian figure, the idea that maybe her staying away from men wasn’t a reflection of her ‘purity’, but maybe a suggestion that she just liked women. I like that we can view old stories like that and see the queer in it and consider the possibilities. I also like that there’s a reading list! It’s super helpful because it can be really difficult to find queer fiction if you don’t know where to look! I like that the web content isn’t too academic as well, it’s informative but not too heavy.
MEGAN: I’m glad you’ve said that, we’re trying to make this information as accessible as we can. I’ve also got a specific object I wanted to show you, I thought it might suit your interests. It’s a bronze statue of Saint Sebastian.
TASHA: Saint Sebastian! Patron saint of queer people! There’s a book called Confessions of a Mask that I haven’t read yet, but it apparently involves the main character seeing visions of his crush as Saint Sebastian, which really intrigued me! I’m glad you’ve included this, and I like the explanation that this statue is different from most depictions of him, because here he’s not covered in arrows, which is unusual!
MEGAN: Nice! Glad you like it! Just one last question now to finish up. What kind of queer stories and histories would you like to see more of, in media, museums and so on?
TASHA: I’d like to see more about queer women, since there is often more about men, given that the persecution of gay men in particular meant that it was more likely to be historically recorded. I’m really interested in the history of criminality though, and I think it’s important to share those stories. I saw something a while ago about a recital of the Ballad of Reading Gaol done from Oscar Wilde’s prison cell. My PhD is on queer fiction by women, so I think it’s super interesting to see how women played a part in queer history because it’s often overlooked. Like Boston marriage is really all we get, but even that is quite limited.
MEGAN: Those are some great points, and I think you’ll be happy with Out at Ranger’s because we tried to include stories from all over the LGBTQ+ spectrum where we could. Thank you for your time today and good luck with your PhD!