Listening to the Sirens: Musical Technologies of Queer Identity from Homer to Hedwig Hardcover - 2005 - 1st Edition

First line

Sailing home from war, Odysseus decides to make a brief detour in order to listen to a song sung by creatures called Sirens.

From the rear cover

"A wide-ranging and beautifully composed book. Peraino moves the argument to the next level, and the elegance of her prose pulls the reader along with her own siren song until the very last sentence."--Susan McClary, author of Modal Subjectivities

"This important book is enlivened by formidable scholarship and engaging prose. Peraino crosses boundaries and makes inspired intellectual and historical connections with breathtaking assurance, unfolding steadily her stunning arguments."--Byron Adams, University of California, Riverside

"Having mastered a daunting and thrilling array of materials--from the troubadour Arnaut Daniel through the disco queen Sylvester and beyond--Peraino brilliantly extends the range of what is considered musical text. Daring, original, and visionary, Listening to the Sirens is likely to become a classic among works that explore the sexual valences of cultural forms."--Carolyn Dinshaw, author of Getting Medieval: Sexualities and Communities, Pre- and Postmodern

"Queerly heterogeneous in structure, wide-ranging in content, and grounded in cultural theory from Foucault to Marcuse, this book produces surprising readings of both "classical" and vernacular musics that are sure to provoke lively--indeed, impassioned--discussion."--Suzanne G. Cusick, New York University

Media reviews

Citations

• Choice, 09/01/2006, Page 123