Alexander the Gay and the Gloryhole That Was Greece

doi:10.1017/9781316711798.020

19 - Alexander the Gay and the Gloryhole That Was Greece

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 13 January 2022

Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones and

Shaun Tougher

Edited by

Richard Stoneman

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Richard Stoneman: Affiliation:
University of Exeter

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Summary

Within contemporary Western gay communities, Alexander the Great is often championed as a hero and an inspirational figure – the ultimate high-status homosexual. This chapter explores the various ways in which he has been visualised within the gay community and its wider – more closeted – community. The chapter explores his literary image in the novels of Mary Renault, in stage musicals and pornography and in mainstream Hollywood cinema. The darker, anti-gay, reading of Alexander is also explored in the context of right-wing nationalism and the military.

Keywords

gay homosexuality Mary Renault popular culture queer literature film Hollywood Broadway

Type: Chapter
Information: A History of Alexander the Great in World Culture , pp. 424 - 447

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781316711798.020 [Opens in a new window]

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Print publication year: 2022

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