Men Beyond Desire : Manhood, Sex, and Violation in American Literature / by David Greven.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Greven, David.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

America--Literatures.

America.

Literature, Modern--19th century.

Literature, Modern.

Sex.

Literature--History and criticism.

Literature.

North American Literature.

Nineteenth-Century Literature.

Gender Studies.

Literary History.

Local Subjects:

North American Literature.

Nineteenth-Century Literature.

Gender Studies.

Literary History.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (XII, 294 p.)

Edition:

1st ed. 2005.

Place of Publication:

New York : Palgrave Macmillan US : Imprint: Palgrave Macmillan, 2005.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

This book explores the construction of male sexuality in nineteenth-century American literature and comes up with some startling findings. Far from desiring heterosexual sex and wishing to bond with other men through fraternity, the male protagonists of classic American literature mainly want to be left alone. Greven makes the claim that American men, eschewing both marriage and male friendship, strive to remain emotionally and sexually inviolate. Examining the work of traditional authors - Hawthorne, Poe, Melville, Cooper, Irving, Stowe - Greven discovers highly untraditional and transgressive representations of desire and sexuality. Objects of desire from both women and other men, the inviolate males discussed in this study overturn established gendered and sexual categories, just as this study overturns archetypal assumptions about American manhood and American literature.

Contents:

Cover

Half Title

Title Page

Copyright Page

Dedication

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments

Introduction: Republican Machines

1. Troubling Our Heads about Ichabod: "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow," Classic American Literature, and the Sexual Politics of Homosocial Brotherhood

2. Fear of Fanshawe: Intransigence, Desire, and Scholarship in Hawthorne's First Published Novel

3. Disturbing the Sleep of Bachelors: Natty Bumppo's Brushes with Desire

4. "Madman!": Part One: Madness and Manhood in Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter and The Blithedale Romance

5. "Madman!": Part Two: Madness and Manhood in Poe's "The Fall of the House of Usher"

6. "Bound in Black Morocco": Manhood and Enchantment in Uncle Tom's Cabin

7. The Afterlife of Uncle Tom's Cabin

8. The Angel Must Hang: Billy Budd, Sailor, Compulsory Homosociality, and the Handsome Sailor

9. Coda: Billy's Fist

Notes

Bibliography

Index.

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Includes bibliographical references (p. [227]-286) and index.

ISBN:

9786611367893

9781281367891

1281367893

9781403977113

1403977119

OCLC:

560461262