Wicked Eunuchs: Literary Caricatures

[JesusA (imported)]

Tucker Lieberman, who has published two books on eunuchs, will be presenting an Internet lecture on Sunday, September 11th. Tucker’s description of his presentation runs:

Some slavery systems and palace hierarchies castrated boys and men. A castrated body could have religious meaning, too. Historically, these cultures rationalized castration as a bodily transformation that turned someone into "a eunuch" and suited him to perform certain roles, especially serving the needs of dominant men. As eunuchs performed distinct social roles, they were perceived as a separate gender.

We have few texts preserving the first-person voices of historical eunuchs, but we do see caricatures of eunuchs in fiction. Eunuchs show up in Western fiction as Orientalist stereotypes, often as villains who represent monstrosity, cruelty, decadence, or mindless obedience. On command, they kidnap and guard women; they spy and participate in intrigues; they murder their rivals. They often lurk at the edges.

Weʼll look at stories including William Beckfordʼs Vathek (1786), James Justinian Morierʼs Zohrab, the Hostage (1832), Gustave Flaubertʼs Salammbo (1862), and Vernon Leeʼs The Virgin of the Seven Daggers (1889).

What does the eunuch gender signify inside these 18th and 19th-century fictions? How does the presence of a eunuch character contribute to a storyʼs genre or aesthetic—specifically, to its horror? Whatʼs the link to 20th and 21st-century fears about transgender and nonbinary people?

Tucker Lieberman has written two nonfiction books related to popular conceptions of eunuchs: Painting Dragons and Ten Past Noon. He is from the United States and lives in Bogotá, Colombia.

While the lecture is free, you need to register in advance to watch the presentation:

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/o/romancin ... 0996677463

[WheelyCurious]

Sounds interesting.

Another more modern author who includes eunuchs as secondary but significant characters in several of his books (I don't have titles at hand, they are in my enormous stacks of "keepers" ) is Harry Turtledove. He has some pretty good chops for doing it as he is a Professor of Byzantine History, and a lot of his books pretty obviously draw on that knowledge (and also many don't)

Most of his books are in the 'alternative history' genre, with varying levels of change from known history and real world physics, ranging from very close to fairly serious fantasy, mostly by making gods that actually intervene in human affairs, and or working magic....

He does a lot of series, and the two that I particularly remember as having eunuchs are both somewhat fantasy and IIRC, include:

1. The "Fox" series, which is a spin-off of the fall of the Roman Empire, and includes a religion that I don't think had any historical basis but did have eunuch priests that only appear briefly but played critical roles.

2. The 'Tale of Krispos' series, which chronicles the life of Krispos starting as a peasant child who manages to rise via a series of fortunate circumstances to being emperor of a Byzantine / Roman style empire - the eunuchs don't show up until either late in the first book or early in the 2nd, and are servants in the imperial palace...

In both instances the eunuchs are portrayed in an interesting way as individuals w/ their own distinct personalities and motives...

I'm not sure I'd read these JUST for the eunuchs, but they are good reads in general if you are into that sort of book....

(Though I'll admit my favorites are "The Guns of the South," the "World War" series, and "The Toxic Spell Dump" for different reasons...)

WheelyCurious

[Paolo]

Flaubert.

I think I'm going to be sick.

[JesusA (imported)]

Before his presentation, Tucker did not know whether or not his talk would be recorded for Youtube. It was and it is now available:

Wicked Eunuchs: Literary Caricatures with Tucker Lieberman

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NtPHVVstNgs

[justapup (imported)]

I'm glad I woke up in time to catch the first session. Was very interesting to hear about how eunuchs were viewed in the literary realm and how they evolved through the years to become the Trans people we see today. Everyone should give it a listen. ^.^

[Valery_V (imported)]

Thanks to Jesus, Tucker Lieberman, also to the people who recorded this lecture and put it on Youtube.

I even managed to download it

[nuts33332 (imported)]

Thank you for posting about this lecture happening! I managed to attend the second session. Tucker stayed after for about 20 min after the hour answering questions which was appreciated.

[Valery_V (imported)]

I was not lucky: I did not see the answers to the questions (second part)

By the way, I saw a lecture on the RomGothSam channel

https://www.youtube.com/user/Ymdol1/videos.

I think there are many other things if anyone wants to see it...

[ScotsEunuch (imported)]

Thanks for the link. I’m sorry I missed the live event but I’m going to enjoy it on YouTube