18 - Macbeth Part 1: Is This a Dagger? The Great Chain of Being, Blood, Milk, and Gender

Is this a dagger, an inanimate ghost, or something more Freudian? In this, the first of a two-part episode, Annabelle and Quest venture onto the blasted heath to explore the apparitions and queer hauntings of William Shakespeare’s Macbeth. We talk about Quest’s work on a recent production of the play at the University at Buffalo, SUNY, and break down concepts regarding gender, kingship, violence, and the disruption of natural order.

Make contact:

@ghostswerepeopletoo (tumblr/instagram)

gwp2pod@gmail.com

Read Quest's article! “Revenge of the Monster Queer: The Cosmic Horror and Eldritch Liberation of Drag" in The Monstrous Utopian, ed. Michael Chemers and Analola Santana, Routledge

Bibliography

• Bersani, Leo. “Is the Rectum a Grave?” In Is the Rectum a Grave?: And Other Essays. University of Chicago Press, 2010.
• Clover, Carol J. “Her Body, Himself: Gender in the Slasher Film.” In Men, Women, and Chain Saws: Gender in the Modern Horror Film. Updated edition with a new preface by the author. Princeton University Press, 2015.
• Jones, Gwilym. “Macbeth: supernatural storms, equivocal earthquakes” In Shakespeare’s Storms. Manchester University Press, 2015.
• Love, Heather. “Macbeth: Milk.” In Shakesqueer: A Queer Companion to the Complete Works of Shakespeare, edited by Madhavi Menon. Duke University Press, 2011.
• Menon, Madhavi. “Queer Shakes.” In Shakesqueer: A Queer Companion to the Complete Works of Shakespeare, edited by Madhavi Menon. Duke University Press, 2011.
• Sedgwick, Eve Kosofsky. Between Men: English Literature and Male Homosocial Desire. Columbia University Press, 1985.
• Varnado, Christine. “Getting Used, and Liking It: Erotic Instrumentality and the Go-Between.” In The Shapes of Fancy: Reading for Queer Desire in Early Modern Literature. University of Minnesota Press, 2020.