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<\/p>\nThe argument that gender-neutral and gender-nonconforming\u00a0pronouns are a recent \u2013 and therefore suspect \u2013 invention is contradicted by centuries\u00a0of literary history, according to a new book written by a University of Surrey researcher.<\/p>\n
Published by Oxford University Press,\u00a0Queer Forms and\u00a0Pronouns: Gender Nonconformity in Anglophone Literature\u00a0traces the use of the singular ‘they’ and other nonconformity\u00a0pronouns through English-language fiction, poetry\u00a0and memoir, and finds them written\u00a0into the canon long before today’s political lines were drawn.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The book opens with a discovery\u00a0that\u00a0its author, Dr Lena Mattheis, made while rereading Virginia Woolf’s\u00a0Orlando\u00a0– a text that dates back to\u00a01928. In the middle of a familiar paragraph, the gender-transforming protagonist is described with the singular ‘they’\u00a0pronoun. \u00a0Diving into the rich history of\u00a0singular \u2018they\u2019,\u00a0Dr Mattheis\u2019\u00a0research\u00a0highlights that this\u00a0pronoun\u00a0is in fact older than singular \u2018you\u2019 and has been used in general language as well as in poetry since at least the 14th\u00a0century.<\/p>\n
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This\u00a0finding shapes the book’s central argument \u2013 that gender-nonconformity\u00a0(GNC)\u00a0pronouns \u2013 singular ‘they’, neopronouns, mixed\u00a0pronouns\u00a0\u2013 are not grammatical novelties. They are a long-established feature of creative writing in English, with their own logic, and they have been doing significant literary work for generations.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Gender-nonconformity\u00a0pronouns are not just practical, they are beautiful.\u00a0The book arrives at a moment of intense and, in some countries, legally enforced hostility towards inclusive language. In the United States, Florida legislation explicitly prohibits teachers from sharing or asking about\u00a0pronouns. The French and Argentinian governments have moved to restrict inclusive language in public institutions. <\/p>\n
In Bavaria, it has been made unlawful for state authorities, including schools, to use gender-inclusive language at all. Dr Mattheis argues that these measures rest on a deep-seated misunderstanding \u2013 that GNC language is new, unnatural\u00a0and grammatically unsound \u2013 and that literary history offers a powerful counter-record.\u00a0Queer Forms and\u00a0Pronouns: Gender Nonconformity in Anglophone Literature<\/a>\u00a0is available from 20 March 2026, at all good bookstores.\u00a0<\/p>\n Dr Lena Mattheis, who is also Senior Lecturer\u00a0in Contemporary Literature at the University of Surrey, said:\u00a0“When I found the singular\u00a0use of\u00a0‘they’ in Orlando, I had to reread the page three times. Nearly a century ago, Woolf, this widely canonised author, used a\u00a0pronoun\u00a0that, in the present day, is often at the centre of discussions about the \u2018novelty\u2019 of nonbinary and trans language and, since the 18th century, has sparked debates about the grammaticality of gender-neutral\u00a0pronouns. <\/p>\n “More than that: Woolf uses singular they to describe an explicitly gender non-conforming (GNC) character. This is significant because singular they is, here, not a gender-neutral\u00a0pronoun\u00a0but makes a clear statement about Orlando\u2019s gender. That changes the conversation.”\u00a0<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Mattheis-1.jpg\")
Dr Lena Mattheis<\/p>\n