ABSTRACT
Michael Shapiro's notion captures the structural unstableness of the cross-cast actor on stage, but less so its political dimension as what might be called a citational variation, and hence imitative subversion, of received gender notions. Theatrical vibrancy then can be seen an equivalent theatrical term to what Stephen Greenblatt has described as the verbal fictionalization of 'chafing' in William Shakespeare's comedies. But Shakespeare's ambiguous treatment of poetic imagery points not only at a transformation of sexuality into poetic language, but also at the sexualization of poetry with clear physical innuendos in its attention to the actor's body. If the poetic sublimation worked to render the homosocial performance socially acceptable, it also declared the female body as neglectable when it comes to pure love. As the ideal of human identity was presented by Williams not only as metaphysical, but also even more so as insubstantial.
