Gay Artists in Modern American Culture: An Imagined Conspiracy
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | 4.33 (663 Votes) |
| Asin | : | 0807886092 |
| Format Type | : | paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 549 Pages |
| Publish Date | : | 2013-05-18 |
| Language | : | English |
DESCRIPTION:
Michael S. . Sherry is professor of history at Northwestern University and author of three books, including the Bancroft Prize-winning The Rise of American Air Power: The Creation of Armageddon
"An extended and often brilliant discussion of gay musicians, dramatists, dancers, and writers from the late 1940s through the 1960s." — Rain TaxiThis is an important and utterly fascinating history of the idea that gay men have exerted a disproportionate and perhaps conspiratorial influence over the arts, particularly theater and modern music.—George Chauncey, author of Gay New York: Gender, Urban Culture, and the Making of the Gay Male World
Remarkable At first I was reading this book rather grudgingly due to what I perceived as its flaw, the almost total absence of West Coast-based artists among his case studies. In fact I still don't know why that would be, the book is about "Modern American Culture" not "Modern Upper East Side Culture," never. An intriging history of an idea Gay Artists in Modern American Culture is a well-researched look at the history of an idea: that an organized group of gay males had overtaken American culture, high and low, and was using it to undermine American values at home and America's standing abroad. The book is full of insights that may . SWAMP FOX said shooting down straw men. I found very little to like about this book.First, the focus is not on "gay artists" but on a few gay composers and musicians, includingAaron Copland, Samuel Barber, Leonard Bernstein, and Giancarlo Menotti. The discussion of these individuals is incredibly repetitious.Second, the book is based on
Even though few gay artists were "out," their sexuality caused significant anxiety during a time of rampant antihomosexual attitudes. Today it is widely recognized that gay men played a prominent role in defining the culture of mid-20th-century America, with such icons as Tennessee Williams, Edward Albee, Aaron Copland, Samuel Barber, Montgomery Clift, and Rock Hudson defining much of what seemed distinctly "American" on the stage and screen. Michael Sherry offers a sophisticated analysis of the tension between the nation's simultaneous dependence on and fear of the cultural influence of gay artists.