seeking recs of a more scholarly nature

All right, I know I've got a few Queer Theory scholars on my flist. I'm trying to write an essay on the construction of homosexual identity in a couple of plays for one of my courses, and I need your help. What are considered to be the foundational texts of Queer Theory (or whatever the proper term for it is)? I could just dive into the field on my own, but I'm a Theater major, and I don't think I'd know where to start. I've had a reasonably solid education in the social sciences, but not this particular branch. Any suggestions?

And along similar lines, I know there are other theater people out there. Go forth and read a play or two by Frank McGuinness, if you haven't already. All of his plays have at least one strong gay character, without the plays themselves being "gay plays". It's so lovely, really, to read something where being gay is just a part of the many things that make up a character, without either needing to be the primary focus of the work or reducing itself to a secondary and oversimplified role of comic relief. I'm a particular fan of McGuinness's "Observe the Sons of Ulster Marching Towards the Somme", which is a beautiful exercise in slashtastic subtext, among other things.

Craig: Well, you're a rare buckcat anyroad.
Pyper: Funny word that.
Craig: Buckcat? It's a--
Pyper: No. Rare. Are you rare, David?
Craig: When I want to be. Army's no place for rareness though.
Pyper: Why not? It takes all sorts to make an army.

Oh, <3 .

oh, bloody hell.

Aw, man. The Rhipodon Society fics are all gone. They're not up on the wayback machine whatsit anymore. Fuckses. Those were some of my favorite QAF UK fics, there. I don't suppose there's any chance someone's got them up somewhere?

i really hate people sometimes

Flist, I beg of you: how the fuck do you get people to respond to your fucking e-mails, when you're on the wrong side of the Atlantic and can't just pick up a phone or run into them in person? Because there is a long, long list of people who need to get back to me on subjects of varying importance and urgency, and I feel like I'm just sending out e-mail after e-mail into an unresponsive void, and it's really starting to both piss me off and stress me out. And I would blame my e-mail service, except I don't know how it would know to filter out all the important stuff rather than, say, the nagging communications from my mother. But seriously. If this goes on much longer, both my summer internship prospects and directing proposal will go completely down the drain, and I've gotten to the point where I'm almost willing to just give up and let my immediate future be ripped to shreds. I suppose it's not particularly important in the long run, anyway.

*beats head against wall, many times*