Homoerotic Fiction and Friendship: Shakespeare's Sonnets Analytical Essay by Master Researcher
Homoerotic Fiction and Friendship: Shakespeare's Sonnets
An analysis of the homoerotic elements in Shakespeare's sonnets.
# 33124
| 900 words
| 7 sources
| MLA
| 2002
| 
Published
on Sep 24, 2003
in
Drama and Theater
(English)
, Gender and Sexuality
(Homosexuality)
, Shakespeare
(Sonnets)
$19.95
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Description:
This paper analyzes the possibility of reading Shakespeare's sonnets as autobiographical pieces of homoerotic literature. The paper argues that the recurring themes, language style, and the phallic and oral imagery of the sonnets allows for a reading of the poems that suggests not only Shakespeare's acceptance of, but also his personal experience with, homoerotic relationships.
From the Paper:
"Some critics such as Edmund Malone have noted that "such addresses to men, however indelicate, were customary in our author's time, and neither imported criminality, nor were esteemed indecorous" (20.241), and note that there exist a multitude of examples from the poet's contemporaries, who, like him, adopted a style of language to addressing a male reader, which may seem excessive to us, but which would then have been considered completely appropriate (Malone, 20.221). However, even those critics who have studied the language of male friendship in the past, assert that Shakespeare's language suggests passion, not just friendly esteem. G. W. Knight, for instance, notes that male friendships were often described in claims that "the creative consciousness" of Shakespeare "is bisexual; otherwise there could be no creation; and in representing the poet's engagement with both sexes, the Sonnets describe steps on the path towards the creative integration"(33)."Cite this Analytical Essay:
APA Format
Homoerotic Fiction and Friendship: Shakespeare's Sonnets (2003, September 24)
Retrieved June 03, 2023, from https://www.academon.com/analytical-essay/homoerotic-fiction-and-friendship-shakespeare-sonnets-33124/
MLA Format
"Homoerotic Fiction and Friendship: Shakespeare's Sonnets" 24 September 2003.
Web. 03 June. 2023. <https://www.academon.com/analytical-essay/homoerotic-fiction-and-friendship-shakespeare-sonnets-33124/>