Four Cornell faculty members are among the leading scholars and queer theorists highlighting the odd and the unexpected in William Shakespeare’s plays and poems, in the new book “Shakesqueer: A Queer Companion to the Complete Works of Shakespeare,” published this month by Duke University Press.

The book features 48 essays that survey queerness in its many forms in Shakespeare’s works and how the Bard enriches queer theory today. Shakespeare was an early modern playwright who dwelt on questions of language, identity and temporality – themes that also figure in modern queer theory, which has typically been restricted to the last two centuries.

Contributors include professor of English Ellis Hanson, on “Antony and Cleopatra”; Theatre, Film and Dance department chair and professor Amy Villarejo, on “The Two Gentlemen of Verona”; assistant professor of Romance studies Cary Howie, on “Henry VI, Part 3”; and assistant professor of English Philip Lorenz, on “Cardenio,” Shakespeare’s “lost” play. Several Cornell Ph.D. students also contributed articles to the 512-page book.

“Shakesqueer” is edited by American University professor Madhavi Menon, an Ithaca College alumna and a keynote speaker at the 2008 “Shakesqueer” symposium held at Cornell.