Out Takes: Essays on Queer Theory and Film (Series Q)

Rating:
Summary: Essential Reading
Review: Everything you'd expect and hope to find in a scholarly work on film and queer theory, and a good many surprises. Ellis Hanson's well edited collection has found its way onto numerous college reading lists and will doubtless stay on them for years to come as this is indeed a seminal volume in the history (brief as it is) of queer theory and film. Academic yet readable and engaging, these essays leave behind discussion of queer films in terms of whether or not they contain "good" or "positive" representations of gay men and lesbians, and rather celebrate what is illusive, problematic, complex, and interesting about the queer themes and characters that have appeared in film since its earliest days.
Hanson's own essay tackles lesbian vampire films, a genre which most critics and film theorists have seldom taken seriously. By the time he's done with it, however, you can't imagine how lesbian vampires could have been igorned for so long. The book, like Hanson's essay, invites us into new and unfamiliar territory and rewards us with fascinating perspectives and analytic energy that can only come when scholars are turned loose on fresh subject matter.
Although talking about anything "queer" is apt to offend certain constituencies, these essays cannot be lightly dismissed. The book is challenging, provocative, and absolutely essential reading for anyone who is interested in queer theory, film, or both.