Overview

We all need flamboyance in our lives. It shines across the breadth of human culture, from art and entertainment to ritual and protest. That said, not all of us are flamboyant, as individuals and social beings... We need a new way in to flamboyance. A theory that speaks to us all, introverts and extroverts alike, that cuts across the barriers that divide us. Flamboyance - a quality often underestimated or dismissed - offers a way of being in the world, and in his fascinating new book, Jack Parlett argues for its value in everybody's lives as an empowering and creative force, illuminating the ways in which flamboyance is a fundamental aspect of human conduct that both marks and transcends difference. Taking in an eclectic array of examples, from the orange flowers of Dungeness to a Parisian gay bar, and populated by such figures as Oscar Wilde, James Baldwin, Elton John, Amy Winehouse and Chappell Roan, this is a book about flamboyant art and the art of flamboyance. And having both aspired to it and rejected it, Jack also recounts his personal relationship to flamboyance while also finding new meanings of the word, exploring its surprises and contradictions, and reconnecting with its radical power.

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9781803511931

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Reviews

This gorgeously written and incisive study of flamboyance, by a rising star among cultural historians, will change the way you see the people and things that simply will not behave * Telegraph * [A] rare book that combines intellectual rigour, deep research and compelling memoir... I loved Flamboyance and will carry it with me for years to come -- Shannon Reed Jack Parlett has magically crafted an open-hearted portrait of not only queer history but also the very foundations of pop culture. Flamboyance never falters in its generosity -- Lovell Holder

[A] rare book that combines intellectual rigour, deep research and compelling memoir... I loved Flamboyance and will carry it with me for years to come -- Shannon Reed Jack Parlett has magically crafted an open-hearted portrait of not only queer history but also the very foundations of pop culture. Flamboyance never falters in its generosity -- Lovell Holder

Author Information

Born in Milton Keynes, in 1992, Jack Parlett is a writer, poet and scholar. He completed his PhD at Cambridge University in 2019, and held a Junior Research Fellowship at University College, Oxford from 2018-2022. He is the author of The Poetics of Cruising: Queer Visual Culture from Whitman to Grindr and Fire Island: A Queer History. His reviews and essays have appeared in the New Yorker, Granta, Poetry London, Literary Hub, Boston Review, BBC Culture and elsewhere.

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