Description
Book SynopsisA must-read for anyone interested in the history of drag performance.?Publishers WeeklyA rich and provocative history of drag's importance in modern British culture. Drag: A British History is a groundbreaking study of the sustained popularity and changing forms of male drag performance in modern Britain. With this book, Jacob Bloomfield provides fresh perspectives on drag and recovers previously neglected episodes in the history of the art form. Despite its transgressive associations, drag has persisted as an intrinsic, and common, part of British popular culturedrag artists have consistently asserted themselves as some of the most renowned and significant entertainers of their day. As Bloomfield demonstrates, drag was also at the center of public discussions around gender and sexuality in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, from Victorian sex scandals to the permissive society of the 1960s. This compelling new history demythologizes drag, stressing its ordinariness while affirming its important place in British cultural heritage.
Trade Review"A must-read for anyone interested in the history of drag performance." * Publishers Weekly *
"An excellent examination of the complexities of various forms of stage drag and its mainstay role in British popular culture." * Library Journal *
"A new look at the history of drag. . . . Bloomfield illustrates how drag has long been a complex yet ‘ordinary’ artform, historically straddling queer radicalism and mass entertainment along the way." * ArtReview *
"A thoughtful and fascinating read." * Everything Theater *
"A fascinating overview of the story of British drag artists." * Alex Sierz *
Table of ContentsContents
List of Illustrations
Acknowledgments
Introduction
1 Old Mother Riley and the Modern Dame
2 Splinters: Cross-Dressing Ex-Servicemen on the Interwar Stage
3 Danny La Rue: Conservative Drag in the “Permissive Society”
4 Skirting the Censor: Drag and the Censorship of the British Theater, 1939–1968
Epilogue: How Queer Is Drag?
Notes
Bibliography
Index
