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 Gender identity is the personal sense of one's own gender. Gender identity can correlate with a person's assigned sex or can differ from it. In most individuals, the various biological determinants of sex are congruent and consistent with the in ...

History

Representations in literature of transgender people have existed for millennia, with

Ovid Publius Ovidius Naso (; 20 March 43 BC – AD 17/18), known in English as Ovid ( ), was a Augustan literature (ancient Rome), Roman poet who lived during the reign of Augustus. He was a younger contemporary of Virgil and Horace, with whom he i ...

's ''

Metamorphoses The ''Metamorphoses'' (, , ) is a Latin Narrative poetry, narrative poem from 8 Common Era, CE by the Ancient Rome, Roman poet Ovid. It is considered his ''Masterpiece, magnum opus''. The poem chronicles the history of the world from its Cre ...

'' (written in the year 8 CE) containing some of the earliest accounts. In the twentieth century, it is notable that the novel ''Orlando'' (1928), by

Virginia Woolf Adeline Virginia Woolf (; ; 25 January 1882 28 March 1941) was an English writer and one of the most influential 20th-century modernist authors. She helped to pioneer the use of stream of consciousness narration as a literary device. Vir ...

, is considered one of the first transgender novels in English and whose plot follows a

bisexual Bisexuality is romantic attraction, sexual attraction, or sexual behavior toward both males and females. It may also be defined as the attraction to more than one gender, to people of both the same and different gender, or the attraction t ...

poet who changes gender from male to female and lives for hundreds of years. 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 ''Myra Breckinridge'' is a 1968 satirical novel by Gore Vidal written in the form of a diary. Described by the critic Dennis Altman as "part of a major cultural assault on the assumed norms of gender and sexuality which swept the western world ...

'' (1968), a satirical novel written by

Gore Vidal Eugene Luther Gore Vidal ( ; born Eugene Louis Vidal, October 3, 1925 – July 31, 2012) was an American writer and public intellectual known for his acerbic epigrammatic wit. His novels and essays interrogated the Social norm, social and sexual ...

that follows a trans woman hellbent on

world domination World domination (also called global domination, world conquest, global conquest, or cosmocracy) is a hypothetical power structure, either achieved or aspired to, in which a single political authority holds power over all or virtually all the i ...

and bringing down

patriarchy Patriarchy is a social system in which positions of authority are primarily held by men. The term ''patriarchy'' is used both in anthropology to describe a family or clan controlled by the father or eldest male or group of males, and in fem ...

. The book sold more than two million copies after publication, but was panned by critics. Many publication that foregrounded transgender individuals and their experience were

memoirs A memoir (; , ) is any nonfiction narrative writing based on the author's personal memories. The assertions made in the work are thus understood to be factual. While memoir has historically been defined as a subcategory of biography or autobio ...

. Perhaps the earliest example is ''Man into Woman'' (1933), by

Lili Elbe Lili Ilse Elvenes (28 December 1882 – 13 September 1931), better known as Lili Elbe, was a Danish painter, transgender woman, and one of the earliest recipients of gender-affirming surgery (then called sex reassignment surgery). Elbe was a p ...

. The older Autobiography Of Androgyne (1918), by victorian/Edwardian era activist Jennie June/Ralph Werther is also an important but often muddy insight into the lives of what he/her called "Ultra-Androgynes", a gender identity of which closest modern equivalent borders closely with transgender woman or effeminate-leaning non-binary. Other acclaimed

written by trans people include '' Gender Outlaw'' (1994), by

Kate Bornstein Katherine Vandam Bornstein (born March 15, 1948) is an American author, playwright, performance artist, actor, and gender theorist. In 1986, Bornstein started identifying as gender non-conforming and has stated "I don't call myself a woman, I ...

; '' Man Enough to be a Woman'' (1996), by

Jayne County Jayne County (born Wayne Rogers) is an American singer, songwriter, actress, record producer, and visual artist whose career has spanned six decades. Under the name Wayne County (inspired by Wayne County, Michigan), she was the vocalist of infl ...

; and '' Redefining Realness'' (2014), by

Janet Mock Janet Mock (born March 10, 1983) is an American writer, television producer, and transgender rights activist. Her debut book, the memoir '' Redefining Realness'', became a ''New York Times'' bestseller. She is a contributing editor for ''Marie ...

; among others. 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.

Susan Stryker Susan O'Neal Stryker (born 1961) is an American professor, historian, author, filmmaker, and theorist whose work focuses on gender and human sexuality. She is a professor of Gender and Women's Studies, former director of the Institute for LGBT St ...

’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. In 2020, Dutch-born Lucas Rijneveld, who is

non-binary Non-binary or genderqueer Gender identity, gender identities are those that are outside the male/female gender binary. Non-binary identities often fall under the transgender umbrella since non-binary people typically identify with a gende ...

, won the

International Booker Prize The International Booker Prize (formerly known as the Man Booker International Prize) is an international literary award hosted in the United Kingdom. The introduction of the International Prize to complement the Man Booker Prize, as the Boo ...

with his novel ''

The Discomfort of Evening ''The Discomfort of Evening'' () is the debut novel by Dutch writer Marieke Lucas Rijneveld, published in 2018. On 26 August 2020, Rijneveld became the first Dutch writer to win the £50,000 International Booker Prize, shared jointly with the nov ...

''.

In Spanish

Among the best known works trans literature in Spanish language are: '' Hell Has No Limits'', a novel by Chilean

José Donoso José Manuel Donoso Yáñez (5 October 1924 – 7 December 1996), known as José Donoso, was a Chilean writer, journalist and professor. He lived most of his life in Chile, although he spent many years in self-imposed exile in Mexico, the Unite ...

published in 1966 whose protagonist is Manuela, a trans woman who lives with her daughter in a deteriorated town called El Olivo; ''

Cobra COBRA or Cobra, often stylized as CoBrA, was a European avant-garde art group active from 1948 to 1951. The name was coined in 1948 by Christian Dotremont from the initials of the members' home countries' capital cities: Copenhagen (Co), Brussels ...

'' (1972), by Cuban writer Severo Sarduy, that uses an experimental narration to tell the story of a transvestite who wants to transform her body; and '' Kiss of the Spider Woman'' (1976), a novel by

Manuel Puig Juan Manuel Puig Delledonne (December 28, 1932 – July 22, 1990), commonly called Manuel Puig, was an Argentine author. Among his best-known novels are '' La traición de Rita Hayworth'' ('' Betrayed by Rita Hayworth'', 1968), ''Boquitas pin ...

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: In recent years, many books in Spanish with transgender protagonists have garnered commercial and critical success. In

Argentina Argentina, officially the Argentine Republic, is a country in the southern half of South America. It covers an area of , making it the List of South American countries by area, second-largest country in South America after Brazil, the fourt ...

, 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. 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. From recent

Ecuadorian literature Ecuadorian literature has been characterized for essentially being ''costumbrista'' and, in general, closely linked to events that are exclusively national in nature, with narratives that provide a glimpse into the life of the common citizen.The o ...

, one example is '' Gabriel(a)'' (2019), by , 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.

In children's literature

According to a 2015

NPR National Public Radio (NPR) is an American public broadcasting organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It serves as a national Radio syndication, syndicator to a network of more ...

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. Transgender teenage girl

Jazz Jennings Jazz Jennings (born October 6, 2000) is an American YouTube personality, spokesmodel, television personality, and LGBT rights activist. Jennings is one of the youngest publicly documented people to be identified as transgender. Jennings receiv ...

co-authored a 2014 children's book called ''I Am Jazz'' about her experience discovering her identity.

Scholastic Books Scholastic Corporation is an American multinational publishing, education, and media company that publishes and distributes books, comics, and educational materials for schools, teachers, parents, children, and other educational institutions. P ...

published Alex Gino's ''George'' in 2015, about a transgender girl, Melissa, who everyone else knows as George. Unable to find books with

transgender A transgender (often shortened to trans) person has a gender identity different from that typically associated with the sex they were sex assignment, assigned at birth. The opposite of ''transgender'' is ''cisgender'', which describes perso ...

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 Gender fluidity (commonly referred to as genderfluid) is a non-fixed gender identity that shifts over time or depending on the situation. These fluctuations can occur at the level of gender identity or gender expression. A genderfluid person may ...

. Additional books listed by ''

The Horn Book Magazine ''The Horn Book Magazine'', founded in Boston in 1924, is the oldest bimonthly magazine dedicated to reviewing children's literature. It began as a "suggestive purchase list" prepared by Bertha Mahony and Elinor Whitney Field, proprietors of t ...

'' include: *''

George George may refer to: Names * George (given name) * George (surname) People * George (singer), American-Canadian singer George Nozuka, known by the mononym George * George Papagheorghe, also known as Jorge / GEØRGE * George, stage name of Gior ...

'' (2012) by

Alex Gino Alex Gino (born October 1, 1977) is a genderqueer American children's book writer. Gino's debut book, ''Melissa'', was the winner of the 2016 Stonewall Book Award and the 2016 Lambda Literary Award in the category of LGBT Children's/Young Adult ...

*''Red: A Crayon's Story'' (2015) by Michael Hall *''The Other Boy'' (2016) by M. G. Hennessey *''Lily and Dunkin'' (2016) by Donna Gephart *''Alex as Well'' (2015) by Alyssa Brugman * ''Jess, Chunk, and the Road Trip to Infinity'' (2016) by Kristin Elizabeth Clark *''Look Past'' (2016) by Eric Devine *''If I Was Your Girl'' (2016) by Meredith Russo *''Lizard Radio'' (2015) by Pat Schmatz *''Beast'' (2016) by Brie Spangler *''The Art of Being Normal'' (2016) by Lisa Williamson 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 *''The Girl from the Stars'' (2016) written and illustrated by Amy Heart *''The Sisters from the Stars'' (2018) written and illustrated by Amy Heart

References

External links

List of literature with transgender themes
{{LGBTQ fiction

History

In Spanish

In children's literature

Further reading

See also

References

External links