Title: Figuring Sex Between Men from Shakespeare to Rochester
First published: 2002
Description: "This book explores the ways in which sexual relationships between men were represented in English literature during the seventeenth century. It is built around two principal themes: firstly the literary strategies through which writers created imagined spaces for the expression of homosexual desire; and secondly the ways in which such texts were subsequently edited and adapted to remove these references to sex between men. The book begins with a wide-ranging analysis of the forms in which both homosexual desire and homophobic hatred were expressed in the period, focusing on the problems of defining male relationships, the erotic dimension to male friendships, and the uses of classical settings. Subsequent chapters offer four case studies.

The first focuses on the way Shakespeare adapted his sources to introduce the possibility of sexual relations between male characters, with special attention to Twelfth Night, The Merchant of Venice, and the Sonnets, and shows how these elements were removed in later adaptations of his plays and poems. Subsequent chapters chart the often satirical representation of homosexual rulers from James I to William III; the ambiguous sexuality figured in the poetry of Andrew Marvell; and the libertine homoeroticism of the poetry of the Earl of Rochester. The book draws on a wide range of poems, plays, letters, and pamphlets, and discusses a substantial amount of previously unknown material from both printed and manuscript sources."--Jacket.
Subjects: Homosexuality and literature, History, Men, Homosexuality, Male, in literature, English literature, Gay men in literature, History and criticism, Sexual orientation in literature, Characters, Views on sexual orientation, Male homosexuality in literature, Homosexuality, history, Male homosexuality, in literature, Homoseksuelen, Letterkunde, Engels, Archetypen, Et l'orientation sexuelle, Littérature anglaise, Histoire et critique, Homosexualité et littérature, Histoire, Homosexualité masculine dans la littérature, Orientation sexuelle dans la littérature, Homosexuels masculins dans la littérature
Places: England
People: William Shakespeare (1564-1616), John Wilmot Rochester Earl of (1647-1680)
Time periods: Early modern, 1500-1700, 17th century, 16th century
LC classification: PR428.H66 H36 2002