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.”

Dr Katrina Jaworski

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.

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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…”

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“The one thing I’m very proud of is that if I know that I have hurt someone’s feelings I will apologise.”

– Dr Michael Noble

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…”

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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…”

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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…”

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Creative Responses

Artistically interpreting Dr Michael Noble and his work

Facets

 

By Renee Miller

 

“Labels struck a chord with me as someone who has always found conflict, rather than solace, in being labelled by myself or others…”

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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…”

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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…”

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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…”

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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’

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