Drag histories, herstories and hairstories : drag in a changing scene. Volume 2 / edited by Mark Edward and Stephen Farrier.

Date:
2021
  • Books

About this work

Description

Drawing on rich interdisciplinary research that has laced the emerging subject of drag studies as an academic discipline, this book examines how drag performance is a political, socio-cultural practice with a widespread lineage throughout the history of performance. This text centres on the importance of dragging up the past to see beyond present drag constructs. Therefore, this volume maps the multi-threaded contexts of contemporary practices while rooting them in their fabulous historical past and memory. The chapters in the book not only examine drag histories, but also what drag does with history, how it enacts or tells stories about remembering and the past. Featuring work about the USA, UK and Ireland, Japan, Australia, Brazil and Barbados, through contributions from an international assortment of performers, academics and writers, this book allows the reader to engage with a range of archive research including photographic explorations of ageing drag queens; ethnicity and drag; queering ballet through drag; the connections between drag king and queen history; queering pantomime performance; bodies as living archives through memory and place; drag mothers and daughters; drag and military veterans; Puerto Rican drag performers and historical film. The volume functions not only to contribute to the area of drag history, but also touch on current work in drag that is done about history. Collectively, these essays complement the contemporary practices documented in Contemporary Drag Practices and Performers: Drag in a Changing Scene (2020), yet they offer echoes of a distinctive drag history, enlarging the remit of history to uncover drag's fruitful past.

Publication/Creation

London : Methuen Drama, 2021.

Physical description

xxxv, 215 pages : illustrations (black and white) ; 23 cm.

Bibliographic information

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Contents

1. Dragging up the past / Mark Edward and Stephen Farrier -- 2. 'Once upon a time, there was a tavern': metadrag and other uses of the past at the Royal Vauxhall Tavern / Ben Walters -- 3. Camp and drag in the mainstream: a critical study of the phenomenon of drag performance in the Northern British fun pubs, 1973-1993 / Chris D'Dray -- 4. Soldiers in skirts : cross-dressing ex-servicemen, sexuality, and censorship in post-war Britain / Jacob Bloomfield -- 5. Kinging the stage: male impersonators and drag kings, exploring shared historical narratives / Stephen Farrier -- 6. A kiss that breaks the spell: Japanese "Drag kings" and the homosocial culture of the Takarazuka Revue / Isabelle coy-dibley -- 7. Camp can be such a drag: approaches to understanding camp and drag / Simon Dodi -- 8. Vonni Diva: showgirl / Rosslyn Prosser -- 9. FagHag drag: penny arcade's archive of otherness / Joseph Mercier with Penny Arcade -- 10. Nobody's trash: Holly Woodlawn's Puerto Rican drag and the subversion of authorship / Gabriel Mayora -- 11. Bibi is a sissy: drag, death by silence and the journey to self-determination / Nando Messias -- 12. Mother Sally and the fig leaf: re/productions of a carnival character in Barbados / Nick Ishmael-Perkins -- 13. The buttcracker: dragging Ballet into queer places / Mark Edward and Helen Newall -- 14. Oh wow! He's queer! Queering Panto in Belfast: an interview with Ross Anderson-Doherty / Alyson Campbell and Trish McTighe -- 15. Wicked queens of Pantoland / Simon Sladen.

Type/Technique

Languages

Where to find it

  • LocationStatus
    History of Medicine
    TPJ /DRA
    Open shelves

Permanent link

Identifiers

ISBN

  • 1350104361
  • 9781350104365