“[C]riticism worthy of its name arises from commitments deeper than professionalism.” (Lawrence Buell, quoted in Postcolonial Ecocriticism, 11)

Look, it’s no secret that I am a trans queer nonbinary etc etc person. Blue hair and pronouns, if you will. I chose that Lawrence Buell quote to open my thesis for a reason. 

When I wrote my thesis in 2020, the queer theory and criticism that I frequently saw in Old Norse and Old English academic spaces took a few things for granted; most importantly, that the male/female gender and sexual binary system is ‘natural’, and so a universal truth across time and space (i.e. no matter where on earth, or what time in history, there were only ever male/female men/women, who were either gay or straight). 

My thesis basically says, “Uh, I don’t think we can take that for granted, actually!”