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Homosexual Desire in Shakespeare's England: A Cultural Poetics

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The idea of homosexuality occuring before there was a term for it isn't necessarily a new idea. It has been an often ignored facet of literature and history because scholars tend to want to see their heroes remain, as they might see it, unsullied. However, considering the works of the greats such as Marlowe and Shakespeare, it is difficult to ignore their homosexual leanings. Smith does more than just uncloset poets and dramatists of the Renaissance, though. He rebuilds the cultural, social, and political climate and breaks the world of Renaissance homosexuality down into 6 distinct myths or stories that embody the various forms that homosexuality took and the ideas associated with each form. The book dropped jaws when first published and remains more than a viable source for Renaissance study and Queer Theory; it is the best book of its kind to date.