The Expression of Queer Identity in Antonio
de Erauso’s Lieutenant Nun: Memoir of a
Basque Transvestite in the New World
Module: Alternative Queer Histories
Tutor: Ezra Horbury
Referencing: MLA 8th Edition
Exam Number: Y3906635
Word Count: 2500
1
, “In the fascinating and fantastic adventures of the Lieutenant Nun doña Catalina de Erauso...what
we read, what we find, is a version of ourselves” (Garber vii). Majorie Garber highlights a modern
reading of this autobiography, debunking the dated allegorical readings. This leaves the reader to
view Erauso’s queer identity as nonsymbolic and as an act of self-fashioning, suggesting a fluid
and artful process, varying in necessity, but certainly stable. Whilst Erauso self-fashions literally
through changes in clothes, in this essay I will focus on self-fashioning through their actions and
speech. Erauso’s autobiographical approach presents queerness through queer time and space,
allowing for a personal presentation of queerness through their Basque identity, their sexuality,
and their embodiment and rejection of gender stereotypes. Thus, Erauso gives satisfaction to those
like Leslie Feinberg who could say “I couldn’t find myself in history. No one like me seemed to
have existed” (11) as Erauso, as Garber outlines, expresses their queer identity in varying manners
which can relate to all readers.
The narrative expresses queer identity structurally through habitual cycles of violence which leads
to seven men being killed outside of battle. The fast-paced violence inflicts disorientation amongst
the reader, but this does not equate to instability. Rather, the continuity presents stability in their
masculine presentation, allowing the reader to accept Erauso’s identity when in action, likewise to
those they encounter. This unusual presentation of time can be understood as queer time, a notion
made certain at the end of the narrative when two women ask, “Señora Catalina, where are you
going, all by your lonesome?” Erauso replies saying, “My dear harlots...I have come to deliver one
hundred strokes to your pretty little necks, and a hundred gashes with this blade to the fool who
would defend your honor” (80). Even with time having passed since their last violent encounter,
Erauso’s habitual violence remains as they still present aggressive behaviour. For Erauso, time is
depicted by risks they are willing to take (Halberstam 15), such as deviating from the role society
wants them to assume now that their female identity is revealed. The narrative’s queer time
consequently debunks “chrononormative” attitudes, thus stopping readers from expecting a linear
pattern of development in maturity and behaviours (Freeman 10). The starkness of this ending is
2
de Erauso’s Lieutenant Nun: Memoir of a
Basque Transvestite in the New World
Module: Alternative Queer Histories
Tutor: Ezra Horbury
Referencing: MLA 8th Edition
Exam Number: Y3906635
Word Count: 2500
1
, “In the fascinating and fantastic adventures of the Lieutenant Nun doña Catalina de Erauso...what
we read, what we find, is a version of ourselves” (Garber vii). Majorie Garber highlights a modern
reading of this autobiography, debunking the dated allegorical readings. This leaves the reader to
view Erauso’s queer identity as nonsymbolic and as an act of self-fashioning, suggesting a fluid
and artful process, varying in necessity, but certainly stable. Whilst Erauso self-fashions literally
through changes in clothes, in this essay I will focus on self-fashioning through their actions and
speech. Erauso’s autobiographical approach presents queerness through queer time and space,
allowing for a personal presentation of queerness through their Basque identity, their sexuality,
and their embodiment and rejection of gender stereotypes. Thus, Erauso gives satisfaction to those
like Leslie Feinberg who could say “I couldn’t find myself in history. No one like me seemed to
have existed” (11) as Erauso, as Garber outlines, expresses their queer identity in varying manners
which can relate to all readers.
The narrative expresses queer identity structurally through habitual cycles of violence which leads
to seven men being killed outside of battle. The fast-paced violence inflicts disorientation amongst
the reader, but this does not equate to instability. Rather, the continuity presents stability in their
masculine presentation, allowing the reader to accept Erauso’s identity when in action, likewise to
those they encounter. This unusual presentation of time can be understood as queer time, a notion
made certain at the end of the narrative when two women ask, “Señora Catalina, where are you
going, all by your lonesome?” Erauso replies saying, “My dear harlots...I have come to deliver one
hundred strokes to your pretty little necks, and a hundred gashes with this blade to the fool who
would defend your honor” (80). Even with time having passed since their last violent encounter,
Erauso’s habitual violence remains as they still present aggressive behaviour. For Erauso, time is
depicted by risks they are willing to take (Halberstam 15), such as deviating from the role society
wants them to assume now that their female identity is revealed. The narrative’s queer time
consequently debunks “chrononormative” attitudes, thus stopping readers from expecting a linear
pattern of development in maturity and behaviours (Freeman 10). The starkness of this ending is
2
