Unspeakable ShaXXXspeares : queer theory and American kiddie culture / Richard Burt.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Burt, Richard, 1954-

Contributor:

Horace Howard Furness Memorial Library (University of Pennsylvania)

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616--Appreciation--United States.

Shakespeare, William.

Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616.

Homosexuality and literature--United States--History--20th century.

Homosexuality and literature.

United States.

History.

Popular culture--United States--History--20th century.

Popular culture.

United States--Civilization--English influences.

Civilization.

Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616--Adaptations.

Youth--United States--Attitudes.

Youth.

Genre:

Adaptations.

Physical Description:

xvii, 318 pages : illustrations ; 22 cm

Edition:

First edition.

Other Title:

Unspeakable Shakespeares

Place of Publication:

New York : St. Martin's Press, 1998.

Summary:

Unspeakable ShaXXXspeares is a savvy look at the wide range of adaptations, spin-offs, and citations of Shakespeare's plays in 1990s popular culture. While we may be familiar with Laurence Olivier and Kenneth Branagh's film adaptations of his plays, what does it say about our culture when Shakespearean references turn up in television episodes of The Brady Bunch and Gilligan's Island, films such as In and Out and My Own Private Idabo, and hardcore porn adaptations of Hamlet and Romeo and Juliet? Instead of lamenting this unusual dissemination of Shakespeare from a position of literary authority, Burt reads the reception of these often quite bad replays in relation to contemporary youth culture and the "queering" of Shakespeare. Documenting a fascinating array of Shakespearean citations that are so far from their originals that they no longer count as interpretations of the plays, Burt considers what Shakespeare enables American popular culture to do that it couldn't otherwise do without him, and scrutinizes academic fantasies about fandom and stardom.

Contents:

Preface to the Paperback Edition: ShaXXXsploitation 2000 xi

Preface: My Own Private ShaXXXspeares xxvii

Introduction: Dumb and Dumber Shakespeares: Academic Fantasy, the Electronic Archive, Loser Criticism, and Other Diminished Critical Capacities 1

Chapter 1 The Love That Dare Not Speak Shakespeare's Name: New Shakesqueer Cinema 29

Chapter 2 Deep Inside William Shakespeare: Pornographic Film and Video "Classics" and the Castrated Gaze 77

Chapter 3 Terminating Shakespeare with Extreme Prejudice: Postcolonial Cultural Cannibalism, Serial Quotation, and the Cinematic Spectacle of 1990s American Cultural Imperialism 127

Chapter 4 When Our Lips Synch Together: The Transvestite Voice, the Virtuoso, Speed, and Pumped-Up Volume in Some Over-heard Shakespeares 159

Chapter 5 My So-Called Shakespeare: Mourning the Canon in the Age of Postpatriarchal Multiculturalism, or the Shakespeare Pedagogue as Loser 203

Conclusion: Spectres of ShaXXXspeare: Loser Criticism, Part Duh 239

Films, Videos, and TV Episodes Discussed 299.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages [287]-306) and index.

ISBN:

0312213638

OCLC:

38765013