Before the Closet – Same–Sex Love from "Beowulf" to "Angels in America" (Emersion: Emergent Village resources for communities of faith) - Hardcover

Frantzen, Allen

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0226260917 ISBN 13: 9780226260914

Publisher: University of Chicago Press, 1998

Synopsis

This study challenges the long-held belief that the early Middle Ages tolerated and even fostered same-sex relations and that intolerance of homosexuality developed only late in the medieval period. Th e text argues that early medieval Christians did not tolerate same-sex acts and, furthermore, that men and women during this time who preferred homosexual relations pursued their desires in spite of official sanctions. This was an age before people recognized the existence - or the possibility - of the "closet". This work focuses on Anglo-Saxon literature but also includes examinations of contemporary opera, dance and theatre. The text employs the figure of the shadow to illustrate the coexistence of homosexual and heterosexual relations in the Middle Ages. The figure is introduced through an analysis of a man's part sung by a woman in operas such as Gounod's "Faust". The reverse figure - men taking women's parts - is traced in two dances by Mark Morris, "The Hard Nut" and "Dido and Aeneas". Also analyzed is the white Anglo-Saxon Protestant in Tony Kushner's play, "Angels in America" and the poems, "Beowulf" and "The Wanderer".

About this edition

• Publisher: University of Chicago Press
• Publication date: 1998
• ISBN 10: 0226260917
• ISBN 13: 9780226260914
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 384