Listening to the Sirens: Musical Technologies of Queer Identity from Homer to Hedwig

Judith A. Peraino9780520215870, 0520215877

In this fresh and innovative study, Judith A. Peraino investigates how music has been used throughout history to call into question norms of gender and sexuality. Beginning with a close examination of the mythology surrounding the sirens – whose music seduced Ulysses into a state of mind in which he would gladly sacrifice everything for the illicit pleasures promised in their song – Peraino goes on to consider the musical creatures, musical gods and demigods, musical humans, and music-addled listeners who have been associated with behavior that breaches social conventions. She deftly employs a sophisticated reading of Foucault as an organizational principle as well as a philosophical focus to survey seductive and transgressive queerness in music from the Greeks through the Middle Ages and to the contemporary period. Listening to the Sirens analyzes the musical ways in which queer individuals express and discipline their desire, represent themselves, build communities, and subvert heterosexual expectations. It covers a wide range of music including medieval songs, works by Handel, Tchaikovsky and Britten, women’s music and disco, performers such as Judy Garland, Melissa Etheridge, Madonna, and Marilyn Manson, and the movies The Rocky Horror Picture Show and Hedwig and the Angry Inch.

---

Table of contents :
EEn……Page 1
Listening to the Sirens – Musical Technologies of Queer Identity from Homer to Hedwig……Page 2
Copyright Info……Page 6
Dedication……Page 7
TOC……Page 9
Illustrations……Page 11
Acknowledgments……Page 13
Introduction……Page 17
1 Songs Of The Sirens – Desire……Page 27
Musical Self-questioning……Page 29
Divine Music……Page 35
Music Education……Page 44
Questioning Chant……Page 53
The Singing Self……Page 60
Romantic Love And Musical Self-invention……Page 69
2 From Confession To The Couch……Page 84
2 The Psychology Of The Musically Inclined……Page 87
2 Tchaikovsky’s Musical Confession……Page 95
2 Benjamin Britten And The Use Of Music……Page 108
2 Craft As Confession……Page 123
3 Queer Ears And Icons – Sign Systems……Page 126
Technology Of Sign Systems……Page 127
Melodrama……Page 130
Sappho And The Melodramatic Man……Page 131
Judy Garland / Sappho Redux……Page 135
A Sister Of Dorothy: Melissa Etheridge And The Melodramatic Lesbian Phallus……Page 147
Madonna: Dorothy In Oz……Page 159
4 Homomusical Communities – Production……Page 168
Product To The People……Page 170
The Business Of Women’s Music……Page 179
Selling Lesbians……Page 182
The Politics Of Instrumental Music……Page 187
Problems With Success……Page 189
Discosexuality……Page 192
Making Gay Men……Page 196
Mighty Real Men, And The Queens Behind Them……Page 200
5 Flights Of Fancy – Power……Page 211
Catching Cuckolds And Hermaphrodites……Page 214
“The Phoenix Of Sodom”……Page 224
Coming Out Into The Middle……Page 243
Notes……Page 269
Works Cited……Page 323
Index……Page 349