Listening to the sirens
Subtitle: musical technologies of queer identity from Homer to Hedwig
By: Judith A. Peraino.
Publisher: University of California Press
Published: 2006
Place of publication: Berkeley
Language: eng
Number of pages: 355
Subjects: Gender identity in music; Homosexuality and music; Music and literature; Music -- History and criticism
Description: "In this study, Judith A. Peraino investigates how music has been used throughout history to call into question norms of gender and sexuality. Beginning with a close examination of the mythology surrounding the Sirens - whose music seduced Ulysses into a state of mind in which he would glady sacrifice everything for the illicit pleasures promised in their song - Peraino goes on to consider musical creatures, musical gods and demigods, musical humans, and music-addled listeners who have been associated with behavior that breaches social conventions. She employs a sophisticated reading of Foucault as an organizational principle as well as a philosophical focus to survey seductive and transgressive queerness in music from the time of the ancient Greeks through the Middle Ages and to the contemporary period.

Listening to the Sirens analyzes the musical ways in which queer individuals express and discipline their desire, represent themselves, build communities, and subvert heterosexual expectations. It covers a wide range of musical experiences, including medieval songs; works by Handel, Tchaikovsky, and Britten; women's music and disco; performers such as Judy Garland, Melissa Etheridge, Madonna, and Marilyn Manson; and the movies The Rocky Horror Picture Show and Hedwig and the Angry Inch."--Jacket.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. 307-332) and index.
Table of contents: title: Songs of the sirens : desire; title: A music of one's own : discipline; title: Queer ears and icons : sign systems; title: Homomusical communities : production; title: Flights of fancy : power.