Queer dramaturgies: Contemporary gay male politics, culture, and theatre.
Item
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Title
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Queer dramaturgies: Contemporary gay male politics, culture, and theatre.
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Identifier
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AAI3187478
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identifier
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3187478
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Creator
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Plum, Jay.
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Contributor
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Adviser: Jill Dolan
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Date
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2005
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Language
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English
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Publisher
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City University of New York.
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Subject
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Theater
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Abstract
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Queer Dramaturgies: Contemporary Gay Male Politics, Culture, and Theatre explores how the visibility associated with the mainstreaming of gay culture and politics in the 1990s impacts the representation of gay men on stage and, in turn, how such theatrical representations inform gay culture and politics. The 1990s unarguably were a period of remarkable visibility for gay men, from the national debates about gay marriage and the right to open military service to the virtual explosion of gay images in popular culture. Whether this increased presence translates into social acceptance and integration has been the subject of considerable debate among different communities and the larger national gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender movement. This dissertation participates in these debates by looking at how the forces of assimilation and mainstreaming manifest themselves in theatre, a cultural arena of historical importance to gay men but generally overlooked in discussions of contemporary gay culture and politics. The project considers a range of performances staged in New York City during the 1990s to better understand how certain performances participate in the mainstreaming of gay men and how different productions or moments in performance disrupt, contradict, or complicate the stable repetition of cultural norms and images on which mainstreaming relies. To this end, theatre functions as a vital public forum where gay men can come to terms with the implications of their increased cultural and political visibility, examine the normalizing effect that heterosexuality has on gay male culture, reclaim and celebrate sexual difference, and examine differences among themselves and within their larger communities.
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Type
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dissertation
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Source
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PQT Legacy CUNY.xlsx
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degree
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Ph.D.
