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RESEÑAS 111 ! ! ! ! ! the book could have contributed something new to the field. Moreover, the author’s enthusiasm for Isabel Barreto in chapter two unfortunately disengages the reader from the main flow of the book. Although more remains to be said and included, the book offers a useful summary of the evolving notion of the South Seas in early modern Europe, while the maps included at the end of the volume are effectively keyed to the main concern of the study. Carmen Y. Hsu University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Stroud, Matthew D. Plot Twists and Critical Turns: Queer Approaches to Early Modern Spanish Theater. Lewisburg, PA: Bucknell UP, 2007. HB. 272 pp. ISBN 9780838756690. Plot Twists and Critical Turns: Queer Approaches to Early Modern Spanish Theater tackles a wide-ranging selection of queer related themes and theories as they relate to well and lesser-known comedia texts. As an approximate ten-year overview of Stroud’s academic work, this volume contains the reworking of nine papers presented at various conferences, some previously published as articles or chapters in other venues. Due to the sheer number of chapters and topics covered, the following short synopses will attempt to capture the main thrust of each chapter, but these summaries do not pretend to reflect the depth and breadth of analysis contained within each section. Chapter 1, “Criticism and the Critic: Queer Perspectives on the Comedia” contains the author’s personal musings on the various stages of his career and represents a description of sorts of his struggles and coming-out as a queer academic. In the second chapter, “Another Country: Lope de Vega’s La Hermosa Ester,” Stroud connects the idea of passing in the Esther story and in Lope’s theatrical version to gay and lesbian passing in the modern era. In the following chapter, “Performativity and Cross-Dressing: Calderón’s Las manos blancas no ofenden, ” the critic analyses fluidity of gender identification in his examination of the use of clothing and more specifically cross-dressing as it pertains to gender identity, desire, beauty, and the binaries of traditional heterosexuality. Chapter Four, “The Failures of 112 REVIEWS ! ! ! ! ! Heterosexuality: Marriage as Problematic in Three Plays by Calderón,” considers the place of women within a homosocial society, on the one hand, and the multilayered and multifaceted masculine fear of penetration as it pertains to questions of honor on the other. In the next chapter, “Homo/Hetero/Social/Sexual: Gila in Vélez de Guevara’s La serrana de la Vera,” Stroud examines the complicated sexual, gender, and social identity of the masculine and independent Gila, her unfortunate acceptance of a traditional role within homosocial society, and finally, her conversion into a murderous and vindictive monster following her husband’s malign betrayal. Chapter 7, “Comedy, Foppery, Camp: Moreto’s El lindo don Diego and Sor Juana’s Los empeños de una casa concentrates, for the most part, on the controversially effeminate, foppish, and camp performance of the Diego character in a 1990 Chamizal production and the homosexual implications of this performance. The following chapter, “Gender, Genre, and Class: The Theater of Juan Rana,” provides a succinct overview of this famous Golden Age actor’s life and career centering on the importance of fixed identity of the nobility in the comedia and the flexibility of identities of the commoner in the entremés. In Chapter 9 “Religion, the Body, and Identity: Cervantes’s Algerian Plays,” Stroud focuses on the complex issue of Christian and Moorish identities and how they relate to questions of sexuality, homosexuality and captivity. The penultimate chapter, “Gay Pornography and Calderón’s El príncipe constante,” delves into the complex and intriguing correlation that exists between martyrdom and gay pornography, especially sadomasochism, as seen in El príncipe constante protagonist’s actions and reactions to imprisonment, mistreatment, and torture. The final chapter, “Ten Final Observations,” contains a varied list of closing thoughts and serves as a conclusion for both the volume and the author’s academic and personal experiences. In general, this volume is highly-theoretical in its approach and at times more direct analysis of the texts would have been desirable. As well, the writing...

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