Overview

Shakesqueer puts the most exciting queer theorists in conversation with the complete works of William Shakespeare. Exploring what is odd, eccentric, and unexpected in the Bard's plays and poems, these theorists highlight not only the many ways that Shakespeare can be queered but also the many ways that Shakespeare can enrich queer theory. This innovative anthology reveals an early modern playwright insistently returning to questions of language, identity, and temporality, themes central to contemporary queer theory. Since many of the contributors do not study early modern literature, Shakesqueer takes queer theory back and brings Shakespeare forward, challenging the chronological confinement of queer theory to the last two hundred years. The book also challenges conceptual certainties that have narrowly equated queerness with homosexuality. Chasing all manner of stray desires through every one of Shakespeare's plays and poems, the contributors cross temporal, animal, theoretical, and sexual boundaries with abandon. Claiming adherence to no one school of thought, the essays consider The Winter's Tale alongside network TV, Hamlet in relation to the death drive, King John as a history of queer theory, and Much Ado About Nothing in tune with a Sondheim musical. Together they expand the reach of queerness and queer critique across chronologies, methodologies, and bodies. Contributors. Matt Bell, Amanda Berry, Daniel Boyarin, Judith Brown, Steven Bruhm, Peter Coviello, Julie Crawford, Drew Daniel, Mario DiGangi, Lee Edelman, Jason Edwards, Aranye Fradenburg, Carla Freccero, Daniel Juan Gil, Jonathan Goldberg, Jody Greene, Stephen Guy-Bray, Ellis Hanson, Sharon Holland, Cary Howie, Lynne Huffer, Barbara Johnson, Hector Kollias, James Kuzner , Arthur L. Little Jr., Philip Lorenz, Heather Love, Jeffrey Masten, Robert McRuer , Madhavi Menon, Michael Moon, Paul Morrison, Andrew Nicholls, Kevin Ohi, Patrick R. O'Malley, Ann Pellegrini, Richard Rambuss, Valerie Rohy, Bethany Schneider, Kathryn Schwarz, Laurie Shannon, Ashley T. Shelden, Alan Sinfield, Bruce Smith, Karl Steel, Kathryn Bond Stockton, Amy Villarejo, Julian Yates

Full Product Details

Author:   Madhavi Menon ,  Michele Aina Barale ,  Professor Jonathan Goldberg ,  Michael Moon
Publisher:   Duke University Press
Imprint:   Duke University Press
Dimensions:   Width: 15.60cm , Height: 3.30cm , Length: 23.50cm
Weight:   0.748kg
ISBN:  

9780822348450

ISBN 10:   0822348454
Pages:   277
Publication Date:   01 February 2011
Audience:   College/higher education ,  Postgraduate, Research & Scholarly
Format:   Paperback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   In Print  
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Table of Contents

Acknowledgments ix Introduction. Queer Shakes / Madhavi Menon 1 All is True (Henry VIII) The Unbearable Sex of Henry VIII / Steven Bruhm 28 All's Well That Ends Well Is Marriage Always Already Heterosexual? / Julie Crawford 39 Antony and Cleopatra Aught an Eunuch Has / Ellis Hanson 48 As You Like It Fortune's Turn / Valerie Rohy 55 Cardenio ""Absonant Desire"": The Question of Cardenio / Philip Lorenz 62 The Comedy of Errors In Praise of Error / Lynne Huffer 72 Coriolanus ""Tell Me Not Wherein I Seem Unnatural"": Queer Meditations on Coriolanus in the Time of War / Jason Edwards 80 Cymbeline desire vomit emptiness: Cymbeline's Marriage Time / Amanda Berry 89 Hamlet Hamlet's Wounded Name / Lee Edelman 97 Henry IV, Part 1 When Harry Met Harry / Matt Bell 106 Henry IV, Part 2 The Deep Structure of Sexuality: War and Masochism in Henry IV, Part 2 / Daniel Juan Gil 114 King Henry V Scrambling Harry and Sampling Hal / Drew Daniel 121 Henry VI, Part 1 ""Wounded Alpha Bad Boy Soldier"" / Mario Digangi 130 Henry VI, Part 2 The Gayest Play Ever / Stephen Guy-Bray 139 Henry VI, Part 3 Stay / Cary Howie 146 Julius Caeser Thus, Always: Julius Caesar and Abraham Lincoln / Bethany Schneider 152 King John Queer Futility: Or, The Life and Death of King John / Kathryn Schwarz 163 King Lear Lear's Queer Cosmos / Laurie Shannon 171 A Lover's Complaint Learning How to Love (Again) / Ashley T. Shelden 179 Love's Labour's Lost The L Words / Madhavi Menon 187 Love's Labour's Won Doctorin' the Bard: A Contemporary Appropriation of Love's Labour's Won / Hector Kollias 194 Macbeth Milk / Heather Love 201 Measure for Measure Same-Saint Desire / Paul Morrison 209 The Merchant of Venice The Rites of Queer Marriage in The Merchant of Venice / Arthur L. Little Jr. 216 The Merry Wives of Windsor What Do Women Want? / Jonathan Goldberg 225 A Midsummer Night's Dream Shakespeare's Ass Play / Richard Rambuss 234 Much Ado About Nothing Closing Ranks, Keeping Company: Marriage Plots and the Will to be Single in Much Ado About Nothing / Ann Pellegrini 245 Othello Othello's Penis: Or, Islam in the Closet / Daniel Boyarin 254 Pericles ""Curious Pleasures"": Pericles beyond the Civility of Union / Patrick O'Malley 263 The Phoenix and the Turtle Number There in Love Was Slain / Karl Steel 271 The Rape of Lucree Desire My Pilot Is / Peter Coviello 278 Richard II Pretty Richard / Judith Brown 286 Richard III Fuck the Disabled: The Prequel / Robert McRuer 294 Romeo and Juliet Romeo and Juliet Love Death / Carla Freccero 302 Sir Thomas More More or Less Queer / Jeffrey Masten 309 The Sonnets Momma's Boy / Aranye Fradenburg 319 Speech Therapy / Barbara Johnson 328 More Life: Shakespeare's Sonnet Machines / Julian Yates 333 The Taming of the Shrew Latin Lovers in The Taming of the Shrew / Bruce Smith 343 The Tempest Forgetting The Tempest / Kevin Ohi 351 Timon of Athens Skepticism, Sovereignty, Sodomy / James Kuzner 361 Titus Andronicus A Child's Garden of Atrocities / Michael Moon 369 Troilus and Cressida The Leather Men and the Lovely Boy: Reading Positions in Troilus and Cressida / Alan Sinfeild 376 Twelfth Night Is There an Audience for My Play? / Sharon Holland 385 The Two Gentlemen of Verona Pageboy, or The Two Gentlemen of Verona: The Movie / Amy Villajero 394 The Two Noble Kinsmen Philadelphia, or War / Jody Greene 404 Venus and Adonis421 Venus and Adonis Freeze / Andrew Nicholls 414 The Winter's Tale Lost, or ""Exit, Pursued by a Bear"": Causing Queer Children on Shakespeare's TV / Kathryn Bond Stockton 421 References 429 Further Reading 449 Contributors 467 Index 477

Reviews

Shakesqueer: A Queer Companion to the Complete Works of Shakespeare rectifies this gap and steps beyond the most obvious connections between the Bard and queer theory... Shakesqueer proposes that we can approach Shakespeare as a queer theorist. The assorted essays assert that Shakespeare has as much to offer queer theory as queer theory can contribute to understanding and deconstructing the Bard's texts. This book belongs on every bookish queer's shelf, right where the leather-bound Complete Works of William Shakespeare butts up against Butler and Foucault. - Kestryl Cael Lowrey, Lambda Literary What happens when queer theory gets into bed with Shakespeare? A play in forty-eight acts, this spirited group production never ceases to entertain and surprise with its queer cast of characters: virgins, eunuchs, and lechers; queens, kings, and pageboys; tyrants, assassins, and killjoys; lions, tigers, and bearsooh my! Full of toil and trouble, wit and wisdom, Shakesqueer succeeds where few other edited collections do: it puts the play back in playwright, and the fun back in theory. Diana Fuss, Princeton University The adventurous essays in Shakesqueer demonstrate that queer theory does indeed need Shakespeare, if only to defy rumours of its own demise: the essays show what is vital about a queer studies that might have been thought by this point too domesticated or reified or 'fixed' to be intellectually vibrant. Carolyn Dinshaw, author of Getting Medieval: Sexualities and Communities, Pre- and Postmodern ...we always had a hunch there were some exceptionally queer goings on beyond some same sex sonnets and this collection of essays proves us right. Earl on earl analysis sits beside complex queer theories on the bard. GT (Gay Times)

“What happens when queer theory gets into bed with Shakespeare? A play in 48 acts, this spirited group production never ceases to entertain and surprise with its queer cast of characters: virgins, eunuchs, and lechers; queens, kings, and pageboys; tyrants, assassins, and killjoys; lions, tigers, and bears—oh my! Full of toil and trouble, wit and wisdom, Shakesqueer succeeds were few other edited collections do: it puts the play back in playwright, and the fun back in theory.”—Diana Fuss, Princeton University

What happens when queer theory gets into bed with Shakespeare? A play in forty-eight acts, this spirited group production never ceases to entertain and surprise with its queer cast of characters: virgins, eunuchs, and lechers; queens, kings, and pageboys; tyrants, assassins, and killjoys; lions, tigers, and bearsooh my! Full of toil and trouble, wit and wisdom, Shakesqueer succeeds where few other edited collections do: it puts the play back in playwright, and the fun back in theory. Diana Fuss, Princeton University The adventurous essays in Shakesqueer demonstrate that queer theory does indeed need Shakespeare, if only to defy rumours of its own demise: the essays show what is vital about a queer studies that might have been thought by this point too domesticated or reified or 'fixed' to be intellectually vibrant. Carolyn Dinshaw, author of Getting Medieval: Sexualities and Communities, Pre- and Postmodern

Author Information

Madhavi Menon is Associate Professor of Literature at American University. She is the author of Unhistorical Shakespeare: Queer Theory in Shakespearean Literature and Film and Wanton Words: Rhetoric and Sexuality in English Renaissance Drama.

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