Vol 5, No 1 (2020)
Special Edition Editors: Dr Corinna Di Niro and Dr Alex Dunkin
Special Edition Associate Editor: Chloe Cannell
The late Dr Michael Noble (1959-2018) was a writer, researcher, activist and advocate who through his life’s work make a significant contribution to his communities, to knowledge, and to the lives of those around him. We publish this Writing From Below special issue to honour and extend Dr Noble’s impact and in doing so present unique works that reflect, examine, respond, and challenge the ideas found within areas of Dr Noble’s personal and academic life.
“Here was a human being who defied binaries yet lived between them and outside of them in spite of their violence on his everyday life. Here was a human being who time and time again proved that binaries were fabrications society needed to classify some as normal and others as less so.”
EDITORIAL:
Knowing Michael
Dr Corinna Di Niro and Dr Alex Dunkin present the editorial in duoenthographic form as co-editors in conversation about how the issue came into being, the life of the late Dr Noble, and the papers in the issue.
Michael's Story
In his own words
Oral History Interview with Michael
By Dr David Sweet
“From a research perspective, oral history is the recording or a personal testimony, delivered orally, recorded, but with resolves beyond the actual recording. Michael was keen to have his oral history, his story, recorded for anyone to access…”
Past, Present and Future
Papers from the 2019 SA Gender, Sex and Sexualities Postgrad + ECR Conference
From Within the Walls
By Bernadine De Beaux
“There is a secret that lurks from within the walls of Westminster Abbey. Its importance cannot be ignored nor undervalued…”
J.T. LeRoy and Exploitative Transformations
By Marija Peričić
“No biological, psychological or economic fate determines the figure that the human female presents in society; it is civilization as a whole that produces this creature…”
Queer Actuality
By Alex Henderson
“There are many ways to read a work queerly, but it is perhaps most important to note why many queer readers are so accustomed to approaching fiction with these analytical goggles on…”
Creative Responses
Artistically interpreting Dr Michael Noble and his work
Horseboys and Master-mistresses
By Dr Pablo Muslera
“Speculation on the identity of the main characters in the sonnets is often linked with questions about Shakespeare’s own sexuality, with some assuming that the love professed for the ‘beautiful youth’ indicates Shakespeare’s own romantic feeling…”
The Disobedient PLR
By Heather McGinn
“By utilising the technique of writing from and through the body, I was able to reckon with the fallout of violence upon my body, explore my emerging queer identity, and disrupt patriarchal discourses of the gender binary within the academy…”
Reflections
Exploring Dr Michael Noble’s legacies
Book Review: Nicholas Culpeper and the Mystery of the Philosopher’s Stone
By Chloe Bleakley and Renee Miller
“Noble makes a case for Culpeper’s works, forgotten or otherwise, as knowledge for knowledge’s sake. The attention to detail and nuance with which Noble addresses the research serves only to highlight the validity of his work…”
The Gift of Dr Michael Noble
By Dr Katrina Jaworski
“Yet we became friends because of our differences, not despite of them. This was not a simple cognitive trick but rather an orientation of a kind, which Sara Ahmed terms, ‘queer orientations’…“