King Lear. Lear’s Queer Cosmos

Chapters in this book

1. Frontmatter i
2. Contents v
3. Acknowledgments ix
4. Introduction. Queer Shakes 1
5. All is True (Henry VIII) The Unbearable Sex of Henry VIII 28
6. All’s Well That Ends Well Or, Is Marriage Always Already Heterosexual? 39
7. Antony and Cleopatra Aught an Eunuch Has 48
8. As You Like It Fortune’s Turn 55
9. Cardenio ‘‘Absonant Desire’’: The Question of Cardenio 62
10. The Comedy of Errors In Praise of Error 72
11. Coriolanus ‘‘Tell Me Not Wherein I Seem Unnatural’’: Queer Meditations on Coriolanus in the Time of War 80
12. Cymbeline desire vomit emptiness: Cymbeline’s Marriage Time 89
13. Hamlet Hamlet’s Wounded Name 97
14. Henry IV, Part 1. When Harry Met Harry 106
15. Henry IV, Part 2. The Deep Structure of Sexuality: War and Masochism in Henry IV, Part 2 114
16. Henry V. Scambling Harry and Sampling Hal 121
17. Henry VI, Part 1. ‘‘Wounded Alpha Bad Boy Soldier’’ 130
18. Henry VI, Part 2. The Gayest Play Ever 139
19. Henry VI, Part 3. Stay 146
20. Julius Caesar. Thus, Always: Julius Caesar and Abraham Lincoln 152
21. King John. Queer Futility: Or, The Life and Death of King John 163
22. King Lear. Lear’s Queer Cosmos 171
23. A Lover’s Complaint. Learning How to Love (Again) 179
24. Love’s Labour’s Lost. The L Words 187
25. Love’s Labour’s Won. Doctorin’ the Bard: A Contemporary Appropriation of Love’s Labour’s Won 194
26. Macbeth. Milk 201
27. Measure for Measure. Same-Saint Desire 209
28. The Merchant of Venice. The Rites of Queer Marriage in The Merchant of Venice 216
29. The Merry Wives of Windsor. What Do Women Want? 225
30. A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Shakespeare’s Ass Play 234
31. Much Ado About Nothing Closing Ranks, Keeping Company: Marriage Plots and the Will to be Single in Much Ado About Nothin 245
32. Othello Othello’s Penis: Or, Islam in the Closet 254
33. Pericles ‘‘Curious Pleasures’’: Pericles beyond the Civility of Union 263
34. The Phoenix and the Turtle Number There in Love Was Slain 271
35. The Rape of Lucrece. Desire My Pilot Is 278
36. Richard II. Pretty Richard (in Three Parts) 286
37. Richard III. Fuck the Disabled: The Prequel 294
38. Romeo and Juliet. Romeo and Juliet Love Death 302
39. Sir Thomas More More or Less Queer 309
40. The Sonnets. Momma’s Boys 319
41. The Sonnets. Speech Therapy 328
42. The Sonnets. More Life: Shakespeare’s Sonnet Machines 333
43. The Taming of the Shrew. Latin Lovers in The Taming of the Shrew 343
44. The Tempest. Forgetting The Tempest 351
45. Timon of Athens. Skepticism, Sovereignty, Sodomy 361
46. Titus Andronicus. A Child’s Garden of Atrocities 369
47. Troilus and Cressida. The Leather Men and the Lovely Boy: Reading Positions in Troilus and Cressida 376
48. Twelfth Night. Is There an Audience for My Play? 385
49. The Two Gentlemen of Verona. Pageboy, or, The Two Gentlemen from Verona: The Movie 394
50. The Two Noble Kinsmen. Philadelphia, or, War 404
51. Venus and Adonis. Venus and Adonis Frieze 414
52. The Winter’s Tale. Lost, or ‘‘Exit, Pursued by a Bear’’: Causing Queer Children on Shakespeare’s tv 421
53. References 429
54. Further Reading 449
55. Contributors 467
56. Index 477