INQ-110 | Masculinities in Literature

Full Title: Masculinities in Literature

Topic Description:

This course aims to trace representations of masculinity in literatures from the eighteenth century to the present. Current conceptions of masculinity evidenced through texts and images such as Fight Club, John Wayne and Sylvester Stallone have a historical and literary precedent in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Using modern theories of masculinity to guide us through the literature, we will analyze men and masculinity from the perspective of gender instead of a “cultural stand-in for humanity.” Numerous questions will guide our inquiries such as: How have men and masculinities been defined? How do representations of masculinities in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries resonate with current conceptions of masculinities? What characteristics make up modern conceptions of masculinity? We will look at issues that have defined men and masculinities since the eighteenth century. Issues such as labor, reproduction, sexuality, remote fathers, and deviant behavior will remind us that we analyze masculinity as a social construction with a diverse and complicated literary and historical resonance.

Counts as Global? No

Topic Approved: March 2011