Unhistorical Shakespeare : queer theory in Shakespearean literature and film / Madhavi Menon.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Menon, Madhavi.

Contributor:

Horace Howard Furness Memorial Library (University of Pennsylvania)

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616--Criticism and interpretation.

Shakespeare, William.

Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616.

Criticism and interpretation.

Desire in literature.

Historicism.

Queer theory.

Shakespeare, William, 1564-1616--Film adaptations.

Genre:

Film adaptations.

Physical Description:

xi, 195 pages ; 22 cm

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

New York : Palgrave Macmillan, 2008.

Summary:

Unhistorical Shakespeare argues that the way in which we study history has significant bearing on what desire we study and how we study it. Menon argues that our embrace of difference as the template for relating past and present produces a heterotemporality in which chronology determines identity. In turn, such an understanding of history fixes sexual identity as the domain of the present and relegates nebulous desire to a thing of the past. In contrast to this temporal-sexual reinfication, Unhistorical Shakespeare outlines the idea of homohistory, which questions the fundamental historicist assumptions of teleology, facticity, citation, origins, and authenticity to lay bare their investments in compulsory heterotemporality.

Contents:

Teleology : spurning consequence in Venus and Adonis

Facts : Cymbeline and the "whore" of historicism

Citation : Bollywood quotes Much ado

Origins : Titus Andronicus and the source of desire

Authenticity : in search of Shakespeare (in love).

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages [175]-182) and index.

ISBN:

0230606709

9780230606708

OCLC:

181601164