Show Notes
The fantastic Jas Morgan is back for a conversation about pronouns in Two-Spirit literature! We think about how kinship is reflected in language, what role pronouns take on in translation and how they can easily be misunderstood, especially when working across cultures and languages. Our conversation is based on a dialogic chapter of Queer Forms and Pronouns, which I co-wrote with Kai Minosh Pyle.
This conversation is part of a miniseries that accompanies my book Queer Forms and Pronouns: Gender Nonconformity in Anglophone Literature (Oxford University Press, 2026). I hope you like hearing more from your host, but not to worry: we will be back to our usual format in just a few weeks.
References: Kai Minosh Pyle Jas Morgan’s “My Pronouns are Kiy/Kin” https://web.archive.org/web/20210416065231/https://aabitagiizhig.com/2016/05/13/red-rising-my-pronouns-are-kiy-kin/ Jas Morgan’s nîtisânak Riot Grrrl Robin Wall Kimmerer Wahkohtowin Joshua Whitehead’s “A Queer Geography of Woundings” Billy-Ray Belcourt Lambda Literary Awards Kin (web series) Justin Ducharme Aalayna Ta’Kaiya Blaney https://jasmorgan.com/2020/10/25/sewing-circle-kin-web-series/ @notvanishing (IG)
Questions you should be able to respond to after listening: Why might pronouns work differently in Two-Spirit literature? What do pronouns have to do with kinship? How are pronouns connected to animacy? We speak about pronouns in translation between languages that attach gendered notions to them or not. How might this affect communication? Are pronouns gendered in your favourite language? What does Jas mean by ‘I am not a metaphor’?
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