5 - The Saints, Satellites, and Sass Series, Part 1: Goeznovius (LSG, 1019 CE)

Queering Arthur

Welcome to 🌈Queering Arthur👑, our fifth episode of the podcast, and first installment of the Saints, Satellites, and Sass series on Arthurian Hagiographies. Join us in exploring ✨queer interpretations🧠 of 🫅🏾The Life of St. Goeznovius📜. The Context for the episodes in this series was covered in previous episodes, but a deeper dive is available in member’s only episodes, available to knights of the virtual round table. Discussion includes: Potential controversial authorship according; historical relationship between Brittany and Wales due to limits of technology for travel; how authorities reinforce their powers through the norms they themselves establish (for example, legitimacy of children through Christian sacrament, Hindu caste system, Confucianism in imperial China, Nazi propaganda, racial segregation in the united states, and internalized homophobia in societies that make homophobia a cultural norm); potential controversy of the source of the text; demythologization of Arthurian legend as interpretation, or hermeneutic, that’s different from the queer hermeneutic we use in the podcast (and how Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Hamilton is similar to the queer hermeneutic). Analysis in the episode includes: Survival versus thrival and how queer thrival is of interest today when queer identity is more tolerated, accepted, and celebrated; horrifying evils of patriarchy as historical facts that motivated either ritual cannibalism done by women for revenge, or paranoia of men haunted by the nightmares of perpetuating the monstrous misogynistic violence (but the evil of patriarchy is queer in that it mirrors kink/bdsm in a non-consensual, harmful, disrespectful, and sexist way); the two-factor model of justice and subdual, with the four quadrants being just subdual (annexation; consensual domination), justly subdued (appeasement; consensual submission), unjust subdual (colonization; sexual assault), and unjustly subdued (invasion; victim of sexual assault); first appearance of slavery in Arthurian legend as evil and non-consensual, on the spectrum of domination in kink/bdsm, but it’s debatable if slavery is more like misogynistic violence, being inauthentically queer, or is it a legitimate question of justice and consent, being authentically queer, and concluding that it is inauthentic because slavery in Britain was associated with ethnicity (native Britons were enslaved by Anglo-Saxons).

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As always, we're discussing these questions on our discord:

1. What meanings have scholars assigned to the authorship of "The Life of St. Goeznovius," and how does this impact our understanding of its historical context?

2. Is the historical relationship between Brittany and Wales adequately explored through the limitations of travel technology during that era? How does this geographical context shape our interpretation of cultural exchanges?

3. What controversies surround the sources of "The Life of St. Goeznovius," and how do these controversies influence interpretations of Arthurian legend?

4. How do authorities reinforce their powers through established norms, as seen in various historical and cultural examples such as Christian sacraments, the Hindu caste system, Confucianism in Imperial China, Nazi propaganda, racial segregation in the United States, and internalized homophobia?

5. What meanings and implications are associated with the term "unjust subdual" in the context of medieval hagiographies, and how does this term reflect the podcast's approach to exploring Arthurian legend through a queer lens?

6. In what ways does the podcast's queer hermeneutic approach demythologize Arthurian legend differently from traditional interpretations?

7. How does the concept of "queer thrival" contrast with "survival" within the context of increasing tolerance and celebration of queer identities today?

8. How does the association of slavery with ethnicity in Britain challenge or reinforce existing interpretations of domination and consent within historical contexts?

Members of our Queer Retinue (Patrons) also get stickers, merch, and members only events like methodology, Livestreams (tabletop games, videogames), readings, reenactments and radio plays, posters, comics, expanding sources, like Arthuriana in modern books, movies, shows, and comics, for example, Tennyson and Elliot, Boorman's Excalibur, Monty Python and The Holy Grail, Disney's Gargoyles, Hellboy, Divine Gate, and more. Arthuriana spans the world and time and we’re gonna queer it all: https://www.patreon.com/QueeringArthur?utm_campaign=creatorshare_creator

Consider it: you can join us and discover the authentic queer narratives woven throughout Arthuriana from the authors and their works, the arts, language, history, politics, religion, and trade that shaped the culture. Unpack the 💖intertextuality📚 using mythology, psychology, biology, and cosmology 🏳️‍🌈 Come! 💙Queer Arthur💜 with us ₊˚✧𑁍.ೃ࿔*: #queer #podcast #arthurianlegend #lgbtq #hermeneutics #staychivalrous