Shakesqueer

A Queer Companion to the Complete Works of Shakespeare

Madhavi Menon, Michèle Aina Barale, Jonathan Goldberg, Michael Moon, Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick

• Publisher: Duke University Press Books
• Year: 2011
• Print ISBN:
  9780822348450
  9780822348337
• eBook ISBN:
  9780822393337
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: LGBT Literary Criticism
• Index: Literature

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

Table of contents

• Contents
• Acknowledgments
• Introduction: Queer Shakes / Madhavi Menon
• "All is True (Henry VIII)" : The Unbearable Sex of Henry VIII / Steven Bruhm
• "All's Well That Ends Well" : Or, Is Marriage ALways Already Heterosexual? / Julie Crawford
• "Antony and Cleopatra" : Aught an Eunuch Has / Ellis Hanson
• "As You Like It" : Fortune's Turn / Valerie Rohy
• "Cardenio" : "Absonant Desire" : The Question of "Cardenio" / Philip Lorenz
• "The Comedy of Errors" : In Praise of Error / Lynne Huffer
• "Coriolanus" : "Tell Me Not Wherein I Seem Unnatural" : Queer Meditations on "Coriolanus" in the Time of War / Jason Edwards
• "Cymbeline" : desire vomit emptiness : "Cymbeline's" Marriage Time / Amanda Berry
• "Hamlet" : Hamlet's Wounded Name / Lee Edelman
• "Henry IV, Part 1" : When Harry Met Harry / Matt Bell
• "King Henry IV, Part 2" : The Deep Structure of Sexuality: War and Masochism in "Henry IV, Part 2" / Daniel Juan Gil
• "King Henry V" : Scambling Harry and Sampling Hal / Drew Daniel
• "Henry VI, Part 1" : "Wounded Alpha Bad Boy Soldier" / Mario Digangi
• "Henry VI, Part 2" : The Gayest Play Ever / Stephen Guy-Bray
• "Henry VI, Part 3" : Stay / Cary Howie
• "Julius Caesar" : Thus, Always: "Julius Caesar" and Abraham Lincoln / Bethany Schneider
• "King John" : Queer Futility: Or, "The Life and Death of King John" / Kathryn Schwarz
• "King Lear" : Lear's Queer Cosmos / Laurie Shannon
• "A Lover's Complaint" : Learning How to Love (Again) / Ashley T. Shelden
• "Love's Labour's Lost" : The L Words / Madhavi Menon
• "Love's Labour's Won" : Doctoring' the Band: A Contemporary Appropriation of "Love's Labour's Won" / Hector Kollias
• "Macbeth" : Milk / Heather Love
• "Measure for Measure" : Same-Saint Desire / Paul Morrison
• "The Merchant of Venice" : The Rites of Queer Marriage in "The Merchant of Venice" / Arthur L. Little Jr.
• "The Merry Wives of Windsor" : What Do Women Want? / Jonathan Goldberg
• "A Midsummer Night's Dream" : Shakespeare's Ass Play / Richard Rambuss
• "Much Ado About Nothing" : Closing Ranks, Keeping Company: Marriage Plots and the Will to be Single in "Much Ado About Nothing" / Ann Pellegrini
• "Othello" : Othello's Penis: Or, Islam in the Closet / Daniel Boyarin
• "Pericles" : "Curious Pleasures" : "Pericles" beyond the Civility of Union / Patrick O'Malley
• "The Phoenix and the Turtle" : Number There in Love Was Slain / Karl Steel
• "The Rape of Lucrece" : Desire My Pilot Is / Peter Coviello
• "Richard II" : Pretty Richard (in Three Parts) / Judith Brown
• "Richard III" : Fuck the Disabled: The Prequel / Robert McRuer
• "Romeo and Juliet" : Romeo and Juliet Love Death / Carla Freccero
• "Sir Thomas More" : More or Less Queer / Jeffrey Masten
• The Sonnets
• "The Taming of the Shrew" : Latin Lovers in "The Taming of the Shrew" / Bruce Smith
• "The Tempest" : Forgetting "The Tempest" / Kevin Ohi
• "Timons of Athens" : Skepticism, Sovereignty, Sodomy / James Kuzner
• "Titus Andronicus" : A Child's Garden of Atrocities / Michael Moon
• "Trolius and Cressida" : The Leather Men and the Lovely Boy: Reading Positions in "Troilus and Cressida" / Alan Sinfield
• "Twelfth Night" : Is There an Audience for My Play? / Sharon Holland
• "The Two Gentlemen of Verona" : Pageboy, or, "The Two Gentlemen from Verona: The Movie" / Amy Villarejo
• "The Two Noble Kinsmen" : Philadelphia, or, War / Jody Greene
• "Venus and Adonis" : Venus Adonis Frieze / Andrew Nicholls
• "The Winter's Tale" : "Lost", or, "Exist, Pursued by a Bear" : Causing Queer Children on Shakespeare's TV / Kathryn Bond Stockton
• References
• Further Reading
• Contributors
• Index