The Queer After-Life of Vaslav Nijinsky

“Kopelson’s strategy, as in his previous work, is to bring relevant culture-studies theory to bear on gay male icons in a lively and readable way that wears its extensive learning lightly. The result is a deeply informed and very moving account of a figure who almost escapes appropriation by the language of criticism. Kopelson meets this challenge in an exemplary way, focusing in historical sequence on the performances. He is steeped in Nijinsky lore, and, just as important, knows the music. He also knows the critics, assessing them shrewdly. This is an elegant, beautifully illustrated account of the legacy of Nijinsky’s ephemeral but influential work as an artist.” —Diane Middlebrook,Stanford University

This is three books in one: an impressionistic account (based on the aestheticism of Walter Pater) of the dancer’s homoerotic career, a deconstructive analysis of his gay male reception (drawn from the semiotics of Roland Barthes), and an exploration of the limitations of that analysis.

Kevin Kopelson is Associate Professor of English at the University of Iowa. He is the author of Beethoven’s Kiss: Pianism, Perversion, and the Mastery of Desire (Stanford, 1996) and Love’s Litany: The Writing of Modern Homoerotics (Stanford, 1994).