Vested Interests: Cross-Dressing and Cultural Anxiety

by Marjorie Garber (Author)

• New

  Paperback
  1997

  $43.53

  Beginning with the bold claim, ''There can be no culture without the transvestite,'' Marjorie Garber explores the nature and significance of cross-dressing and of the West's recurring fascination with it.

• Used

  Paperback
  1993

  $6.59

  Vested Interests focuses on the relationship between the aesthetic and the existential, from Shakespeare to Peter Pan and M. Butterfly , from transsexual surgery and societies for transvestites and transsexuals, to Madonna, Michael Jackson, and even Elvis. Garber establishes that transvestism, far from being a marginal and socially deviant practice, in fact makes culture possible by marking the entrance to the symbolic. Citing the recurrence of transvestite theatre throughout different eras and cultures, Garber views the transvestite as a reiteration of the theatre's underlying problem of representation, because the transvestite acknowledges that every figure on stage is an impersonator . By examining transvestism's varied social manifestations, the book addresses issues of gender, sexuality, race and class. The argument is illustrated with examples: the sumptuary laws of medieval and early modern Europe, the little-known transvestite tales of Mark Twain and the public furore over an art student's portrayal of late Chicago Mayor Harold Washington wearing women's lingerie. This book should be of interest to undergraduates and academics.