External Extension of Early Modern Drama: Cinematic Adaptation and Appropriation of Edward II.

Abstract

The aim of this paper is first to investigate historical presumptions of same-sex desire by critics, defining the love of Edward and Gaveston as homosexuality, even if the concept did not exist in early modern. Then, Edward’s subject might be explained as the line of flight which is part of the rhizome turning to Deleuze and Guattari. Third, Derek Jarman’s 〈Edward II〉 movie which Marlowe’s Edward II, a Jacobean play characterizing radical and subverted elements was filmed, will be explored from Jarman’s homosexuality view. Jarman represented Edward and Gaveston’s love and its oppression through the eyes of the present, and audience can notice Jarman’s queer contemporary Jacobean aesthetic in 〈Edward II〉. Furthermore Edward III’s sexual identity will be probed through transgressive cross-dressing and his consumption of his uncle’s blood can be interpreted as multiple crystalline facets by Deleuze, that is, to crystallize the potentiality and gestures towards a queer afterlife encoded in the present. Through these process mentioned, it will be concluded that Marlowe’s Jacobean characteristics will be extended from early modern to today, opening a new thought horizon.