Bike Boys, Drag Queens, and Superstars: Avant-Garde, Mass Culture, and Gay Identities in the 1960s Underground Cinema

This comprehensive, insightful study demonstrates that 1960s New York underground film fused 'artistic innovation and the exploration of everyday life' and distinctively interacted with mass culture.' --Choice

. . . thoroughly researched [and] engaging text . . . --Library Journal

This is a very timely and welcome book. . . . intervenes very effectively to rewrite the history of the 1960s American underground cinema. --UTS Review

At the confluence of experimental art and the gay subculture of early 1960s New York, Juan Suárez discovers a postmodern, gay-influenced aesthetic that recycles popular culture. Filmmakers Kenneth Anger, Jack Smith, and Andy Warhol epitomize this sensibility, combining the influences of European avant-garde movements, comic books, rock 'n' roll, camp, film cults, drag performances, fashion, and urban street cultures.

Author: Juan A. Suarez
Publisher: Indiana University Press
Published: 03/22/1996
Pages: 384
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 1.30lbs
Size: 8.79h x 5.19w x 1.21d
ISBN: 9780253329714

Review Citation(s):
Kirkus Reviews 01/01/1996 pg. 56
Library Journal 06/01/1996 pg. 110

About the Author

JUAN A. SUÁREZ is Assistant Professor of English at the Universidad de Murcia, Spain.