1.

Record Nr.

UNISA996248172803316

Autore

Peraino Judith Ann

Titolo

Listening to the sirens : musical technologies of queer identity from Homer to Hedwig / / Judith A. Peraino

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Berkeley, : University of California Press, 2005

ISBN

1-282-35643-7

9786612356438

0-520-92174-7

1-4237-1728-7

1-59875-584-6

Edizione

[1st ed.]

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (370 p.)

Disciplina

780/.86/64

Soggetti

Gender identity in music

Homosexuality and music

Music and literature

Music - History and criticism

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Description based upon print version of record.

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Nota di contenuto

Front matter -- Contents -- Illustrations -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction -- 1. Songs of the Sirens -- 2. A Music of One's Own -- 3. Queer Ears and Icons -- 4. Homomusical Communities -- 5. Flights of Fancy -- Notes -- Works Cited -- Index

Sommario/riassunto

In this fresh and innovative 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 gladly sacrifice everything for the illicit pleasures promised in their song-Peraino goes on to consider the musical creatures, musical gods and demigods, musical humans, and music-addled listeners who have been associated with behavior that breaches social conventions. She deftly 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 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 music 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.