William Fisher
Research Interests: The literature and culture of early modern England; the history of gender, sexuality, and race; early modern cultural studies.
Theory Group Field Specialization: Gay/Lesbian/Queer Literature and Theory
Chronological Period Specialization: Renaissance/Early Modern Literature
Research:
Professor Fisher is currently working on two different book-length projects: the first is a book about sexual practices in early modern English culture (with chapters on kissing, chinchucking, intercrural sex, cunnilingus, the use of dildos, and flogging), and the second is a book about "bisexuality" and notions of sexual orientation.
Publications:
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Materializing Gender in Early Modern English Literature and Culture, Cambridge University Press (2006). Winner of Best Book Award of 2006 from the Society for the Study of Early Modern Women.
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"Peaches and Figs: ‘Bisexual’ Eroticism in Bronzino’s Venus and Cupid Paintings and Burlesque Poetry,” Sex Acts in Early Modern Italy: Practice, Performance, Perversion, Punishment, ed. Allison Levy (Ashgate, 2010): 151-164.
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“Home Alone: The Place of Women’s Homoerotic Desire in Shakespeare's As You Like It,” Feminisms and Early Modern Texts: Essays for Phyllis Rackin, ed. Rebecca Bach and Gwynne A. Kennedy (Susquehanna University Press, 2010): 99-118.
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"The Sexual Politics of Victorian Historiographic Writing about 'the Renaissance,'" GLQ: A Journal of Gay and Lesbian Studies, 14:1 (2007): 41-67.
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"The Renaissance Beard: Masculinity in early modern England and Europe," Renaissance Quarterly, 54:1 (2001): 155-87.
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"Handkerchiefs and Early Modern Ideologies of Gender," Shakespeare Studies, 28 (2000): 191-99.
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"Queer Money," English Literary History 66 (1999): 1-23.
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"Gabrielle's New Clothes: Cultural Valuations and Evaluations of Gabrielle d'Estrees et une de ses soeurs," Textual Practice 12:3 (1998): 251-67.