Happy Pride: Wizards as Neuro-Queer Icons

During the month of June, MIP will be featuring works in our New Queer Medievalisms and Premodern Transgressive Literatures series that explore what it has meant to be queer through the ages. We want to share our publications in queer studies with all of you in a spirit of love, visibility, and affirmation—to spread the word about our series that provide a home for important work in queer medieval studies; to share fascinating blog posts, podcasts, and open access resources related to these works; and to support the work of our authors and welcome new authors to publish with us. Happy Pride!

The first book in MIP's Premodern Transgressive Literatures series, "Thinking Queerly: Medievalism, Wizardry, and Neurodiversity in Young Adult Texts," traces the wizard from medieval Arthurian literature to contemporary young adult adaptations. By exploring the link between Merlin and Harry Potter or Morgan la Fey and Sabrina, readers will see how the wizard offers spaces of hope and transformation for young readers. In particular, this book examines how wizards think differently and how this difference can resonate with both LGBTQ and neurodivergent readers, who’ve been told they don’t fit in.

In their introduction, Jes Battis considers the character of the wizard:

"Who does this character resemble? Which communities do they cross, and how can we prise 'wizard' from white supremacist notions of what it means to be 'medieval' in the first place? How do we ensure that wizards can create space for readers beyond privileged white, straight, and abled communities?... What kind of wizards do we need?"

As they grapple with these questions throughout the book, Battis draws upon work in queer medievalism, race and gender in medieval studies, and medieval disability studies, and they explore trans and nonbinary characters in medieval and medievalist works. The book ranges from discussions of Merlin, Morgan le Fay, and Gawain to "Buffy the Vampire Slayer," "Schitt's Creek," "The Lord of the Rings," and more.

Battis ends their introduction by pointing to "the inherent queerness in medievalism—its category disruption and refusal to settle upon a binary" and arguing that this inherent queerness has shaped medievalism "into a force for empowerment within contemporary teen fiction":

"This refers not only to the oddness of the Middle Ages as a period that readers might not immediately connect with, but also the queering potential of medievalist adaptation—taking something remote and making it accessible, even campy. Most often, I'll argue, that queer force is embodied by the wizard, both inside/outside of community. But just as medieval literature could not decide precisely upon one definition of wizard, so has the YA genre diversified and reimagined that character as powerful, inclusive, wyrd." 

"Thinking Queerly" is featured in De Gruyter's "Pride Month 2023" curated collection of books, journal articles, and blog posts that showcase current research and discussions that have raised awareness of LGBTQIA+ issues, past and present.

The introduction of "Thinking Queerly" has been made open access and will be available to read for free until July 10!

Also check out Jes Battis's appearances on the Queer Lit and Witch, Please podcasts and David Clark's review of "Thinking Queerly" in the "International Journal of Young Adult Literature."

Premodern Transgressive Literatures takes a decisively political, intersectional, and interdisciplinary approach to medieval and early modern literature. The series supports scholarship which transgresses normative bounds along various axes. This includes the transgression of temporal boundaries which superficially separate the premodern era from our twenty-first century moment.

We aim to show, with insistent urgency, the ways in which the premodern can help us make sense of the modern, and the ways in which cutting-edge modern paradigms can help us better understand established, canonical premodern texts.

This series is acutely aware of the role of the scholar in the production of history and the crucial importance of the context of scholarly work: the Academy, with its unique characteristics, both positive and negative. As such, Premodern Transgressive Literatures makes space for provocative discussion about the business of producing—and teaching—transgressive work in the neo-liberalized Academy.

Medieval Institute Publications welcomes monographs from established and early career researchers, collections of thematic essays, scholarly editions and translations with substantial introductions and apparatus.

Keywords: intersectionality, interdisciplinary, literature, culture, medieval, early modern, pedagogy

Geographical scope: Global, including but not limited to Europe, the Mediterranean, Asia

Chronological scope: Medieval and early modern world