Representing the Male: Masculinity, Genre and Social Context in Six South Wales Novels - Couverture souple

Jenkins, John Perrott

Couverture souple

ISBN 10 : 1786837781 ISBN 13 : 9781786837783

Editeur : University of Wales Press, 2021

Synopsis

The book subjects male characters in six south Wales novels written between 1936 and 2014 to detailed, gendered reading. It argues that the novels critique the form of masculine hegemony propagated by structural patriarchy serving the material demands of industrial capitalism. Each depicts characters confined to a limited repertoire of culturally endorsed behaviourial norms – such as displays of power, decisiveness and self-control – which prohibit the expression and cultivation of the subjective self. Within the social organisation of industrial capitalism, the working-class characters are, in practice, reduced to dispensable functionaries at work while, in theory, they are accorded the status of patriarchally-sanctioned principals at home. Ideologically subservient and ‘feminised’ in one context, they are ideologically dominant and ‘masculinised’ in another. As they negotiate, resist or strive to reconcile the irreconcilable demands of such gendered practices, recurring patterns of exclusion, inadequacy and mental instability are made evident in their representation.

A propos du livre

À propos de l'auteur

Following a career in teaching, lecturing and writing on English and American literature, John Perrott Jenkins is currently working on postcolonialism, border identity and the social construction of gender in anglophone Welsh fiction.

Détails de l'édition

• Éditeur: University of Wales Press
• Date d'édition: 2021
• Langue: anglais
• ISBN 10: 1786837781
• ISBN 13: 9781786837783
• Reliure: Broché
• Nombre de pages: 256
• Coordonnées du fabricant: non disponible
• Personne responsable: non disponible