Queer Shakespeare: Desire and Sexuality

by Goran Stanivukovic (Editor)

Queer Desire and Sexuality draws together 13 essays, which offer a major reassessment of the criticism of desire, body and sexuality in Shakespeare's drama and poetry. Bringing together some of the most prominent critics working at the intersection of Shakespeare criticism and queer theory, this collection demonstrates the vibrancy of queer Shakespeare studies. Taken together, these essays explore embodiment, desire, sexuality and gender as key objects of analyses, producing concepts and ideas that draw critical energy from focused studies of time, language and nature. The Afterword extends these inquiries by linking the Anthropocene and queer ecology with Shakespeare criticism. Works from Shakespeare's entire canon feature in essays which explore topics like glass, love, antitheatrical homophobia, size, narrative, sound, female same-sex desire and Petrarchism, weather, usury and sodomy, male femininity and male-to-female crossdressing, contagion, and antisocial procreation.

Genres: Queer, Nonfiction, Shakespeare, Essays, LGBT

424 pages, Paperback

Published February 7, 2019

About the author

Goran Stanivukovic is professor of early modern English literature and cultural studies and chair of the Department of English at Saint Mary's University.

Reviews

[bri]

Queer nature, or the weather in Macbeth
One of the most riveting essays of Macbeth scholarship I've read in a while. Not only made me gasp with the discovery of new meanings and understandings, but actually helped me to understand other scholarships (about alchemy and such) that I had previously engaged with but struggled to understand. What a great way to think about queerness in time and space and how that connects with this incredible play.

[Serge · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some of the lines of inquiry are tendentious, but the analyses of A Midsummer’s Night Dream and Twelfth Night are spot on. I not only read the book with the 2016 Globe Theatre performance in mind, but also revisited the 2014, 2015, and 2017 film adaptations. They all support a less heteronormative reading of transgressive Shakespearean texts.

[Anna Broom · Rating 3 out of 5]

my own lack of exposure to Shakespeare was my downfall! The Queer Weather in Macbeth essay was exceptional and thought provoking. A reminder to read and engage with more plays.

[Arlen Scholes · Rating 5 out of 5]

HOOOLLLYYY SHIT

[Milo]

Feels like it was written for those familiar with literary academia so a fair amount went over my head. But it was still very interesting and made some thought-provoking points.