Queer People: Negotiations and Expressions of Homosexuality, 1700-1800 (Bucknell Studies in Eighteenth-Century Literature and Culture)

Literature and Culture aims to publish challenging, new eighteenth-century scholarship. Of particular interest is critical, historical, and interdisciplinary work that is interestingly and intelligently theorized, and that broadens and refines the conception of the field. At the same time, the series remains open to all theoretical perspectives and different kinds of scholarship. While the focus of the series is the literature, history, arts, and culture (including art, architecture, music, travel, and history of science, medicine, and law) of the long eighteenth century in Britain and Europe, the series is also interested in scholarship that establishes relationships with other geographies, literature, and cultures for the period 1660-1830. Queer People : An Introduction / Caroline Gonda And Chris Mounsey -- Homosexual Context And Identity : Reflections On The Reception Of Handel As Orpheus / Ellen T. Harris -- Queerness, Class, And Sexuality / Sally O'driscoll -- Sex And Shopping With Frances Burney / Conrad Brunström -- People, Place And Performance : Theoretically Revisiting Mother Clap's Molly House / Tanya Cassidy -- How (not) To Queer Boswell / Thomas A. King -- Cruising Crusoe : Diving Into The Wreck Of Sexuality / Joseph Campana -- London's Homosexuals In The Eighteenth Century : Rhetoric Versus Practice / Netta Goldsmith -- Dark Deeds At Night / Ruth Herman -- Queer Labor : Genius And Class In Eighteenth-century Pastoral / Bridget Keegan -- Love Between Men In Jennens' And Handel's Saul / Ruth Smith -- Conversion Panic, Circumcision And Sexual Anxiety : Penelope Aubin's Queer Writing / Chris Mounsey -- Queer Doings In Oxford : The Christian's New Warning Piece (1753) / Caroline Gonda -- Having It Both Ways? : The Eighteenth-century Menage-à-trois / Chris Roulston. Edited By Chris Mounsey And Caroline Gonda. Includes Bibliographical References And Index. This fascinating and diverse collection of essays concerns the lives and representations of homosexuals in the long eighteenth century. The collection addresses and seeks to move beyond the current critical division between essentialists and social constructionists, a division that bedevils the history of sexuality and fissures Queer Theory. Drawing on a wide range of sources as well as theoretical approaches, the essays explore canonical and non-canonical literature, scurrilous pamphlets and court cases, music, religion and politics, consumer culture and sexual subcultures. Eighteenth-century life is here in all its rich variety, from the scandals surrounding Queen Anne to the struggles of laboring-class poets, and from the famous: Defoe, Handel, Boswell, Burney, and the Duchess of Devonshire, to the obscure male frequenters of Mother Clap's Molly House or the anonymous female participants in the extraordinary story of The She-Wedding. This collection of essays concerns the lives and representations of homosexuals in the eighteenth century, exploring canonical and non-canonical literature, scurrilous pamphlets and court cases, music, religion and politics, consumer culture and sexual subculture