Louisa May Alcott

Queer as Fact

History

4.8 • 644 Ratings

🗓️ 22 January 2022

⏱️ 89 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Today's episode is on beloved 19th century author Louisa May Alcott. Irene, Alice and Jason, who between them have read the 1868 novel Little Women, watched the 2017 movie Little Women, and read a good number of Louisa May Alcott's letters, diaries and papers, discuss the times when fiction might be more honest than autobiography, the ways that gender identity and gendered social roles interact, and the appeal (or lack thereof) of cold baths. Thank you to our Patreons for voting on this episode! It was fun to research and record. Check out our website, where you can find out everything there is to know about Queer as Fact. If you enjoy our content, consider supporting us on Patreon, checking out our merch, and following us on Twitter, Tumblr and Facebook. [Image: Portrait of Louisa May Alcott; Wikimedia Commons]

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello and welcome to Queer is Facts, the podcast bringing you queer history from around the world and throughout time.
0:05.1	I'm Irene. I'm Alice. And I'm Jason. And today we're going to be talking about 19th century author
0:10.8	Louisa May Alcott.
0:20.5	Before we get started, I'd like to acknowledge the Waurundry Woiwurong people of the Kulin Nation
0:25.5	as the traditional owners of the land on which we record this podcast and pay respects to their elders past and present.
0:31.5	We recognise them as the custodians of an oral history tradition far older than this podcast.
0:36.2	I have some content warnings for this episode.
0:39.1	There is a brief discussion of chattel slavery of black people in the US in the 19th century.
0:46.0	The US Civil War is here and death and injury caused by the Civil War. There will be some
0:51.0	discussion of acute and chronic illness as well as death from illness.
0:55.4	There is also some well-intentioned but damaging 19th century medical practices and a death in childbirth.
1:03.5	All in all, I wouldn't say it's like a notably bleak episode, but it is very 19th century.
1:08.1	If any of that sounds like something that you would prefer not to listen to,
1:11.6	we have eight seasons of other content for you to listen to.
1:14.4	No hard feelings.
1:15.3	As a researcher, I was extremely fortunate in that Louisa May Alcott kept extensive journals
1:20.4	and wrote a lot of letters throughout her life.
1:22.8	Love that.
1:23.6	It was extremely well documented.
1:25.1	I guess she was a writer.
1:26.3	She was a writer, and she drew a lot of her fictional writing from her real life,
1:30.8	and so she kept detailed journals in order to provide future inspiration for her writing.
	...

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