Shakespeare / Sex interrogates the relationship between Shakespeare and sex by challenging readers to consider Shakespeare’s texts in light of the most recent theoretical approaches to gender and sexuality studies. It takes as its premise that gender and sexuality studies are key to any interpretation of Shakespeare, be it his texts and their historical contexts, contemporary stage and cinematic productions, or adaptations from the Restoration to the present day. Approaching ‘sex’ from four main perspectives – heterosexuality, third-wave intersectional feminism, queer studies and trans studies – this book tackles a range of key topics, such as medical science, rape culture, the environment, disability, religion, childhood sexuality, race, homoeroticism and trans bodies.
The 12 essays range across Shakespeare’s poems and plays, including the Sonnets and The Rape of Lucrece, Coriolanus, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Measure for Measure, Richard III and The Two Noble Kinsmen. Encouraged to push the envelope, contributors to this essay collection open new avenues of inquiry for the study of gender and sexuality in Shakespeare.
Introduction – Jennifer Drouin (McGill University, Canada) Part I: Heterosexuality and its Perils 1. Greensickness and Shakespeare – Jessica C. Murphy (University of Texas, Dallas, USA) 2. ‘For me, I am the mistress of my fate’: Lucrece, Rape Culture and Feminist Political Activism – Kay Stanton (California State University, Fullerton, USA) Part II: Intersectional Sex 3. Sex/ecology: Madness in Method – Sharon O’Dair (University of Alabama, USA) 4. Crip Sexualities and Shakespeare’s Measure for Measure – Allison P. Hobgood (Willamette University, USA) 5. Protestantism, Marriage and Asexuality in Shakespeare – Melissa E. Sanchez (University of Pennsylvania, USA) 6. Children’s Metamorphoses: Ovid, Shakespeare, Sex and Childhood – Kate Chedgzoy (Newcastle University, UK) 7. ‘Live, and Beget a Happy Race of Kings’: Richard III, Race and Homonationalism – Urvashi Chakravarty (University of Toronto, Canada) Part III: Queer Shakespeares 8. Sex in the Sonnets: The Boy and Dishonourable Passions of the Past – Goran Stanivukovic (Saint Mary’s University, Canada) 9. When Coriolanus was Hot: Reading for Homoeroticism Across Time – Huw Griffiths (University of Sydney, Australia) 10. Queer Eye for the Not So Straight Guy: Ocular Excesses and Erotic Gazes in The Two Noble Kinsmen – Jennifer Drouin (McGill University, Canada) Part IV: Trans Shakespeares 11. ‘Bless thee Bottom, bless thee! Thou art translated’: Gender Identity and Transformation in Shakespeare – Kathleen E. McLuskie (Shakespeare Institute, UK) 12. A Woman’s Prick: Trans Technogenesis in Sonnet 20 – Colby Gordon (Bryn Mawr College, USA) Notes Bibliography Index
Jennifer Drouin is the author of Shakespeare in Québec: Nation, Gender, and Adaptation (2014) as well as numerous essays on early modern gender and sexuality and contemporary adaptations of Shakespeare.
