Madhavi Menon je docentkou literatury na American University. Její práce se hluboce noří do queer teorie v literatuře a filmu, přičemž zkoumá, jak se sémantika a sexualita prolínají v dramatické tvorbě anglické renesance. Menon je uznávána pro svůj pronikavý pohled na přepisování a interpretaci klasických děl prostřednictvím optiky queer perspektivy.
With its elegant and humorous prose, this book explores a wide array of desires, resonating with a diverse readership. The author presents complex themes in a clear and engaging manner, making the content accessible and relatable. Readers can expect a thought-provoking journey that intertwines wit with insightful observations on human nature and aspiration.
Indifference to Difference organizes around Alain Badiou’s suggestion that, in the face of increasing claims of identitarian specificity, one might consider the politics and practice of being indifferent to difference. Such a politics would be based on the superabundance of desire and its inability to settle into identity. Madhavi Menon shows that if we turn to another kind of universalism—not one that insists we are all different but one that recognizes we are all similar in our powerlessness to contain desire—then difference no longer becomes the focus of our identity. Instead, we enter the worlds of desire. Following up on ideas of sameness and difference that have animated queer theory, Menon argues that what is most queer about indifference is not that it gives us queerness as an identity but that it is able to change queerness into a resistance of ontology. Firmly committed to the detours of desire, queer universalism evades identity. This polemical book demonstrates that queerness is the condition within which we labor. Our desires are not ours to be owned; they are indifferent to our differences.
Exploring the intersection of language and sexuality, Madhavi Menon combines classical and Renaissance rhetorical handbooks with iconic Renaissance plays. The work highlights how both forms address themes of transgressive sex while simultaneously discussing the mechanics of language, revealing a deep connection between rhetoric and eroticism in this pivotal period of literature.