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Gender Formation and Queer Love in Shakespeare’s “Sonnet 20”
The young man, the subject of Shakespeare’s first 126 sonnets, is an ambiguous presence. Despite being written about extensively, he is never described in full. His gender, interestingly, is neither easily identifiable nor stable. In sonnet 20, the young man’s gender is confusingly put into focus and blurred. Either as a means of correcting Nature’s queer feelings or as a mistake, the young man ends up with a penis. By hypercorrecting—I adopt this linguistics term to mean mistakenly correcting something to avoid the nonstandard—her queer love, Nature ultimately perpetuates it and reveals the insignificance of gender as it relates to love. The young man is immediately a gender-bending force.…
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Spring Will Come Again: Story, Song, and Sorrow in Anaïs Mitchell’s Hadestown
“Orpheus with his lute made trees And the mountain tops that freeze Bow themselves when he did sing: To his music plants and flowers Ever sprung; as sun and showers There had made a lasting spring. Every thing that heard him play, Even the billows of the sea, Hung their heads and then lay by. In sweet music is such art, Killing care and grief of heart Fall asleep, or hearing, die.” —William Shakespeare, Orpheus “On the road to Hell there was a railroad line/And a poor boy workin’ on a song/His mama was a friend…
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Creating a Story Without Words: Parallels in Story and Music-making
Music and writing have a lot in common. You may have even heard stories themselves be described in terms of music- like beats of action, the rhythm of words, and the melody, or a voice, of an author. Throughout the years, these two disciplines have helped each other to both become powerful outlets of creativity and expression. When polyphony, or music with more than one independent voice, became common, there was also a rising interest in composing music with a story plot. Many techniques were developed, particularly in the Romantic Era, where extramusical art forms such as books and plays were used to help musicians find an emotional truth in…
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Aconite and mandrake: Crypto-pharmacological botanicals in Shakespeare
Don’t try these remedies at home, kids, no matter how reputable Shakespeare’s local apothecary might seem.
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The Medieval Origin of a Vile New Insult: Cuck
If you happen to frequent the comments section in political Facebook and Twitter posts, YouTube videos, and many other such places on the Internet, you may have encountered alt-right commenters referring to 'those stupid liberal snowflakes' as “cucks”.
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5 Common Phrases in their Shakespearean Context
Although we may not realize it, many common phrases we use today were written by Shakespeare hundreds of years ago. When was the last time you were so tired you felt as “dead as a doornail”? Or when you experienced a “wild goose chase”? Although these sayings may not have been coined by Shakespeare himself, they were certainly present in his written works and were popularized by him. Here are some Shakespearean phrases in their literary context to boost your knowledge of The Bard. 1. Dish fit for the gods “And, gentle friends, Let’s kill him boldly but not wrathfully. Let’s carve him as a dish fit for the…
