Flaming Classics: Queering the Film Canon

by Alexander Doty

Overview

This lively, opinionated, and playful look at the movies is a must-read for film buffs, and for anyone interested in gender, sexuality, and popular culture. One thing's for sure. After reading Flaming Classics you'll know you're definitely not in Kansas anymore.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781134001439
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	06/01/2002
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	256
File size:	2 MB

About the Author

Alexander Doty is an Associate Professor in the English Department at Lehigh University. He is author of MakingThings Perfectly Queer: Interpreting Mass Culture ,(1993) and is co-editor of Out in Culture: Gay, Lesbian andQueer Essays on Popular Culture (1995).

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments, Introduction, ONE Render unto Cesare: The Queerness of Caligari, TWO “My Beautiful Wickedness”: The Wizard of Oz as Lesbian Fantasy, THREE Queerness, Comedy, and The Women, FOUR The Queer Aesthete, the Diva, and The Red Shoes, FIVE Everyone’s Here for Love: Bisexuality and Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, SIX “He’s a transvestite!” “Ah, not exactly.” How Queer Is My Psycho, Permissions, Index

Editorial Reviews

Doty, author of Making Things Perfectly Queer and other works on lesbians/gays and mass culture, offers "queer readings" of six films that are not explicitly gay--The Wizard of Oz, The Red Shoes, The Women, Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, and Psycho. Some of the essays are revisions of early articles, but much of the material is new, and Doty often takes a fresh approach to overexamined works. For example, rather than giving the standard gay iconographic reading of Wizard, Doty posits that the film is a lesbian fantasy. An interesting and often amusing queer deconstruction of classic films, this is recommended for film collections as a companion to the growing library of similar academic studies, including Harry M. Benshoff's Monsters in the Closet (LJ 2/1/98) and Chris Straayer's Deviant Eyes, Deviant Bodies (LJ 1/97).--Anthony J. Adam, Prairie View A&M Univ. Lib., TX Copyright 2000 Cahners Business Information.\

Library Journal

"What makes Flaming Classics so refreshing is not so much its innovative angle as its conversational edge. Instead of the autoerotic jargon that all too often excites film critics while leaving their audiences unsatisfied, Doty's intelligent, accessible analyses convert his discourse into a pleasurable intercourse between writers and readers of both academic and pop-culture texts." — Rain Taxi
"...peeks into new spaces with a sharp, funny eye to the tornado that continues to rage between marginalized queer cultures and mainstream cinema." — Rain Taxi
"Flaming Classics by Alexander Doty turns up the temperature on gay currents in cinema from Caligari to Psycho" -Flaunt."
"This year's many books that probe the sexual nature of film, film stars and filmmakers could stock a mini-library. Part of the entertaining group is Flaming Classics by Alexander Doty, who argues that "The Wizard of Oz" is a lesbian fantasy — a notion that many "friends of Dorothy" might passionately debate." — Publishers Weekly
"...Doty often takes a fresh approach to overexamined works." — Library Journal

From the Publisher