Scholarlink

<p>This article examines James Ijames’s <i>Fat Ham</i> (2021) as a radical queer reconfiguration of Shakespeare’s <i>Hamlet</i>, exploring how race, gender, and sexuality intersect within the heteronormative logics of African American familial and cultural structures. Drawing on queer theory, adaptation studies, and performance analysis, it argues that <i>Fat Ham</i> reframes the tragic form as a theatrical practice of resistance through which marginalized identities reclaim agency and rearticulate kinship. Engaging with recent scholarship on queer adaptation, particularly the work of Pamela Demory, and situating Ijames’s dramaturgy within José Esteban Muñoz’s conception of disidentification, the study interrogates how language, gesture, and metatheatricality generate new performative subjectivities. By transforming the legacy of tragedy into an act of renewal, <i>Fat Ham</i> disrupts the affective structures that underwrite masculinity, violence, and death, opening a space for alternative queer futurities. The article therefore positions Ijames’s dramaturgy as a model of queer re-vision that challenges the disciplinary boundaries of adaptation and subjectivity studies alike.</p>

错误：搜索内容不能为空，请输入英文关键词
错误：关键词超出字数限制，请精简
高级检索

Queering tragedy in James Ijames’s Fat Ham: paratheatre, identity, and the collapse of heteronormative models

  • 期刊论文

  • 发表日期：

    2026年3月1日

查看全文
  • Ahmed Abdelkheir Abuelmagd Khaled

摘要

This article examines James Ijames’s Fat Ham (2021) as a radical queer reconfiguration of Shakespeare’s Hamlet, exploring how race, gender, and sexuality intersect within the heteronormative logics of African American familial and cultural structures. Drawing on queer theory, adaptation studies, and performance analysis, it argues that Fat Ham reframes the tragic form as a theatrical practice of resistance through which marginalized identities reclaim agency and rearticulate kinship. Engaging with recent scholarship on queer adaptation, particularly the work of Pamela Demory, and situating Ijames’s dramaturgy within José Esteban Muñoz’s conception of disidentification, the study interrogates how language, gesture, and metatheatricality generate new performative subjectivities. By transforming the legacy of tragedy into an act of renewal, Fat Ham disrupts the affective structures that underwrite masculinity, violence, and death, opening a space for alternative queer futurities. The article therefore positions Ijames’s dramaturgy as a model of queer re-vision that challenges the disciplinary boundaries of adaptation and subjectivity studies alike.