 |
GetTextbooks.co.uk
Compare Prices & Save up to 90% |
|
|
|
| Login | Sign up | My Wish List |
 | | Queer Virgins and Virgin Queans on the Early Modern Stage by Mary Bly ISBN-10: 9780198186991 ISBN-10: 0-19-818699-1 ISBN-13: 9780198186991 ISBN-13: 978-0-19-818699-1 Hardcover 2000-08-10 Oxford University Press, USA Find Lowest Price |
Editorials | ||
Product Description Queer Virgins and Virgin Queans looks at the early modern theater through the lens of obscure and obscene puns--especially "queer" puns, those that carry homoerotic resonances and speak to homoerotic desires. In particular, it resurrects the operations of a small boys' company known as the first Whitefriars, which performed for about nine months in 1607-8. As a group, the plays performed by this company exhibit an unusually dense array of bawdy puns, whose eroticism is extremely interesting, given that the focus of eros is the male body. The laughter recoverable from Whitefriars plays harnesses the pun's inherent doubleness to homoerotic pleasure; in these plays, 'the bawdy hand of the dial' is always 'on the pricke of noone'. Mary Bly's analysis depends on the nature of punning itself, and the inflections of language and the creativity that marked Whitefriars punsters, with special emphasis on the effect of puns on an audience. What happens to audience members who sit shoulder to shoulder and laugh at homoerotic quibbles? What is the effect of catching a queer pun's double meaning in a group rather than while alone? How can we characterize those auditors, within the convoluted, if fascinating, theories of erotic identity offered by queer theorists? | ||
Reviews | ||
Vital element of Renaissance drama thoroughly investigated Mary Bly, an Oxford-educated professor of Reniassance drama at New York's Fordham University, has produced in "Queer Virgins and Virgin Queens on the Early Modern Stage" a fantastic piece of scholarly investigation. This is not to say that the work is dry or unexciting at any point, though. She does a fascinating job of delving into the use of (bawdy) puns on the Reniassance stage. Her style of writing is vibrant and keeps the reader's attention throughout, and yet is endlessly informative. In the process of examining the puns, and the language of the time, she manages to give the reader a very clear sense of sixteenth/seventeenth century society. It is a brilliant piece of criticism and surely deserves a spot on the shelf right along with other literary critics of high standing. Absolutely indispensible for those interested in the subject matter. | ||