Crossing the Stage

by Ferris, Lesley

• ISBN13: 9780415062688
• ISBN10: 0415062683
• eBook ISBN(s): 9781134924523
• Additional ISBN(s): 9781134924530
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1993-12-06
• Publisher: Routledge
• More Book Details
• Purchase Benefits

Summary

Cross-dressing in theatrical performance has generated a lively, controversial debate in the last decade. This collection examines cross-dressing as a culturally determined performance phenomenon, and brings a wide range of arguments and historical evidence to bear on this fascinating subject. The essays focus on cross-dressing in theatre, cabaret, opera and dance, and address everything from the significance of the cross-dressed classical Greek actor to the Renaissance tradition of adolescent boys playing female roles: from Restoration breeches roles to "vogueing." Using critical perspectives drawn from social history, anthropology, psychoanalysis and gender theory, contributors discuss performance traditions within the wider context of sexology and sexuality, and draws out the differences of their approach. Contributors include Jill Campbell, Yale University; Elizabeth Drorbaugh, Hofstra University; Lynn Garafola, Senior Editor, Dance Magazine; Marybeth Hamilton, University ofLondon; Jean E. Howard, Columbia University; Peggy Phelan, New York University; Isa Ragusa, Princeton University; Laurence Senelick, Tufts University; Alisa Solomon, staff writer for The Village Voice.

Table of Contents

List of illustrations
Notes on contributors
Acknowledgments
Introduction: Current crossings	p. 1
Cross-Dressing, the Theater, and Gender Struggle in Early Modern England	p. 20
Goethe's "Women's Parts Played by Men in the Roman Theater"	p. 47
The Legacy of Goethe's Mimetic Stance	p. 51
"When Men Women Turn": Gender reversals in Fielding's plays	p. 58
Boys and Girls Together: Subcultural origins of glamour drag and male impersonation on the nineteenth-century stage	p. 80
The Travesty Dancer in Nineteenth-Century Ballet	p. 96
"I'm the Queen of the Bitches": Female impersonation and Mae West's Pleasure Man	p. 107
Sliding Scales: Notes on Storme DeLarverie and the Jewel Box Revue, the cross-dressed woman on the contemporary stage, and the invert	p. 120
It's Never Too Late to Switch: Crossing toward power	p. 144
Crisscrossing Cultures	p. 155
Bibliography	p. 171
Index	p. 191
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