Reframing Drag provides a critical survey of French and Anglo-American queer and feminist theorizations of drag performance, placing these approaches in a dialogue with contemporary drag practice and the representation of drag in three literary texts. Challenging pervasive assumptions circulating in existing queer and feminist analyses of drag performance, the author identifi es and questions three recurring ideas which have shaped the landscape of drag research: the argument that drag performances either uphold or subvert oppressive gender norms, the assumption that drag involves performing as the ‘opposite sex’, and the belief that drag can shed light on gender performativity. Informed by a range of gender and queer theory, this work contends that an intersectional, transfeminist approach to drag performance can provide richer, more nuanced understandings of drag and, unlike the ‘opposite sex’ narrative, acknowledges the gender diversity at work in current drag scenes.
ISBN: | 9781138312128 |
Publication date: | 21st November 2019 |
Author: | Kayte (University of Warwick, UK) Stokoe |
Publisher: | Routledge an imprint of Taylor & Francis Ltd |
Format: | Hardback |
Pagination: | 180 pages |
Series: | Routledge Research in Gender and Society |
Genres: |
Sociology Gender studies, gender groups Feminism and feminist theory Literary studies: general Popular culture Literature: history and criticism LGBTQ+ / Gay and Lesbian Studies Literary studies: c 1900 to c 2000 Cultural studies |