Synopses & Reviews
Review
"Conventional critics of Marlowe have been far too concerned with his conscious intentions—the explicit, though ambiguous, meanings in his plays. Kuriyama, on the other hand, uses psychological theory to uncover a deep structure of unambiguous homosexual thinking. Hammer or anvil, the castrates or the castrated, Marlowe's protagonists, from Tamburlaine to Edward II, overreach in order to avoid castration but end up castrated—at least metaphorically. With faulty logic and specious analogizing, Kuriyama overwhelms the reader. In her view, the search for empire and omnipotence by so many of Marlowe's characters veils a search for sexual identity. These conclusions are perhaps predictable in a book partly inspired by Kenneth Anger's overrated, shrill, motorcycle-sexual fantasy, Scorpio Rising. Kuriyama presents: Marlow descending." Reviewed by Daniel Weiss, Virginia Quarterly Review (Copyright 2006 Virginia Quarterly Review)