Isis changing the sex of Iphis. Engraving by Bauer for a 1703 edition of Metamorphoses.
Transgender literature is a collective term used to designate the literary production that addresses, has been written by or portrays people of diverse gender identity.[1][2]
History
Representations in literature of transgender people have existed for millennia, with Ovid's Metamorphoses (written in the year 8 CE) containing some of the earliest accounts.[3] In the twentieth century, it is notable that the novel Orlando (1928), by Virginia Woolf, is considered one of the first transgender novels in English and whose plot follows a bisexual poet who changes gender from male to female and lives for hundreds of years.[4]
Before Orlando though The Marvelous Land of Oz by L. Frank Baum was published in (1904) with the main character Ozma born a girl but as an infant turned into a boy, named Tippetarius/Tip, and raised as one until at the end of the book discovering their true identity as the princess of Oz.
Beyond Orlando, the twentieth century saw the appearance of other fiction works with transgender characters that saw commercial success. Among them is Myra Breckinridge (1968), a satirical novel written by Gore Vidal that follows a trans woman hellbent on world domination and bringing down patriarchy. The book sold more than two million copies after publication, but was panned by critics.[5]
Transgender literature emerged as a distinct branch of LGBTQIA+ literature in the early twenty-first century, when the number of fiction works focused on trans experience saw a pronounced growth and diversification. This was accompanied by a greater academic and general interest in the area, as well as a process of differentiation from the rest of LGBTQIA+ literature. In recent decades, more books than ever have been written by transgender authors with an intended audience of transgender readers.[8]
Susan Stryker’s Transgender History: The Root’s of Today’s Revolution, revised edition published 2017, is a guide to the general history of American transgender culture. Both the original and revised editions are short books, but they provide a good overview of transgender history. Stryker covers topics from terminology to social movements. This book can be a good introduction to transgender culture and a guide for those unfamiliar with the LGBTQIA+ community and culture.[9]
Among the best known works trans literature in Spanish language are: Hell Has No Limits, a novel by Chilean José Donoso published in 1966 whose protagonist is Manuela, a trans woman who lives with her daughter in a deteriorated town called El Olivo;[11]Cobra (1972), by Cuban writer Severo Sarduy, that uses an experimental narration to tell the story of a transvestite who wants to transform her body;[6] and Kiss of the Spider Woman (1976), a novel by Manuel Puig in which a young revolutionary called Valentín shares a cell with Molina, who is presented as a gay man but who during their conversations implies that his identity might be of a transgender woman, as its shown in the next passage:[12]
– Are all homosexuals like that? – No, there are others that fall in love among themselves. Me and my friends are women. We don't like those little games, those are things homosexuals do. We are normal women that have sex with men.
In recent years, many books in Spanish with transgender protagonists have garnered commercial and critical success. In Argentina, one of the most famous examples is Las malas (2019), by Camila Sosa Villada, which won the prestigious Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz Prize.[13] The novel, inspired by the youth of the author where she narrates the lives of a group of transgender prostitutes working in the city of Córdoba, became a critical and commercial sensation, with more than eight editions in Argentina alone and translations to many languages in the first year of publication.[14] From recent Ecuadorian literature, one example is Gabriel(a) (2019), by Raúl Vallejo Corral [es], a novel that won the Miguel Donoso Pareja Prize with the story of a transgender woman that falls in love with an executive and faces a discriminatory society in her attempt to become a journalist.[15]
In children's literature
According to a 2015 NPR story, hundreds of books featuring transgender characters have been published since 2000. Although a vast majority of them tend to be targeted to a teenage audience, these publications also consist of picture books for younger children.[16]
Transgender teenage girl Jazz Jennings co-authored a 2014 children's book called I Am Jazz about her experience discovering her identity.[17][18][19]Scholastic Books published Alex Gino's George in 2015, about a transgender girl, Melissa, who everyone else knows as George.[16] Unable to find books with transgender characters to explain her father's transition to her children, Australian author Jess Walton created the 2016 children's book Introducing Teddy with illustrator Dougal MacPherson to assist children in understanding gender fluidity.[20][21] Additional books listed by The Horn Book Magazine include:
In the past few years, transgender women have been finding publishers for their own picture books written for transgender kids. Some of these books include:
A Princess of Great Daring (2015) written by Tobi Hill-Meyer, illustrated by Elenore Toczynski
Super Power Baby Shower (2017) written by Tobi Hill-Meyer and Fay Onyx, illustrated by Janine Carrington
He wants to be a princess (2019) written and illustrated by Nicky Brookes
From the Stars in the Sky to the Fish in the Sea (2017) written by Kai Cheng Thom, illustrated by Kai Yun Ching & Wai-Yant Li[23]
The Girl from the Stars (2016) written and illustrated by Amy Heart[24]
The Sisters from the Stars (2018) written and illustrated by Amy Heart
Further reading
Stryker, Susan. (2017). Transgender history (Second edition): The Roots of Today’s Revolution. Seal Press.
