Lecture More-than-human archives: a queer perspective

What is the significance of non-human animals in modern queer culture? The talk introduces some of the cats and dogs that roamed queer modernity – such as the Old English Sheepdogs of composer Ethel Smyth or the cats of artist Claude Cahun – to consider afresh the material and affective contours of the queer past. It focuses on the early twentieth-century, a transformative moment in LGBTQI+ history when a modern way of thinking and living ‘sex’ – understood in terms of gender, sexual desire, the body and a sense of self – gained traction. This was also transformative time for human-animals relation when pedigree dog and cat cultures and related pet fashions gained great popularity. The talk brings into proximity these histories. Examining a selection of pet portraits, it aims to problematise ideas about love and companionship and in so doing expand debates about the possibilities and limits of queer archives beyond the human.