9780822321323-0822321327-Stagestruck: Theater, AIDS, and the Marketing of Gay America

Stagestruck: Theater, AIDS, and the Marketing of Gay America

ISBN-13: 9780822321323
ISBN-10: 0822321327
Author: Sarah Schulman
Publication date: 1998
Publisher: Duke University Press Books
Format: Hardcover 176 pages
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Book details

ISBN-13: 9780822321323
ISBN-10: 0822321327
Author: Sarah Schulman
Publication date: 1998
Publisher: Duke University Press Books
Format: Hardcover 176 pages

Summary

Stagestruck: Theater, AIDS, and the Marketing of Gay America (ISBN-13: 9780822321323 and ISBN-10: 0822321327), written by authors Sarah Schulman, was published by Duke University Press Books in 1998. With an overall rating of 3.6 stars, it's a notable title among other Musical Genres (Popular Culture, Social Sciences, Music) books. You can easily purchase or rent Stagestruck: Theater, AIDS, and the Marketing of Gay America (Hardcover) from BooksRun, along with many other new and used Musical Genres books and textbooks. And, if you're looking to sell your copy, our current buyback offer is $0.3.

Description

In Stagestruck noted novelist and outspoken critic Sarah Schulman offers an account of her growing awareness of the startling similarities between her novel People in Trouble and the smash Broadway hit Rent. Written with a powerful and personal voice, Schulman’s book is part gossipy narrative, part behind-the-scenes glimpse into the New York theater culture, and part polemic on how mainstream artists co-opt the work of “marginal” artists to give an air of diversity and authenticity to their own work. Rising above the details of her own case, Schulman boldly uses her suspicions of copyright infringement as an opportunity to initiate a larger conversation on how AIDS and gay experience are being represented in American art and commerce.
Closely recounting her discovery of the ways in which Rent took materials from her own novel, Schulman takes us on her riveting and infuriating journey through the power structures of New York theater and media, a journey she pursued to seek legal restitution and make her voice heard. Then, to provide a cultural context for the emergence of Rent—which Schulman experienced first-hand as a weekly theater critic forthe New York Press at the time of Rent’s premiere—she reveals in rich detail the off- and off-off-Broadway theater scene of the time. She argues that these often neglected works and performances provide more nuanced and accurate depictions of the lives of gay men, Latinos, blacks, lesbians and people with AIDS than popular works seen in full houses on Broadway stages. Schulman brings her discussion full circle with an incisive look at how gay and lesbian culture has become rapidly commodified, not only by mainstream theater productions such as Rent but also by its reduction into a mere demographic made palatable for niche marketing. Ultimately, Schulman argues, American art and culture has made acceptable a representation of “the homosexual” that undermines, if not completely erases, the actual experiences of people who continue to suffer from discrimination or disease. Stagestruck’s message is sure to incite discussion and raise the level of debate about cultural politics in America today.

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