Overview

"We take for granted the idea that white, middle-class, straight masculinity connotes total control of emotions, emotional inexpressivity, and emotional isolation. That men repress their feelings as they seek their fortunes in the competitive worlds of business and politics seems to be a given. This collection of essays by prominent literary and cultural critics rethinks such commonly held views by addressing the history and politics of emotion in prevailing narratives about masculinity. How did the story of the emotionally stifled U.S. male come into being? What are its political stakes? Will the ""release"" of straight, white, middle-class masculine emotion remake existing forms of power or reinforce them? This collection forcefully challenges our most entrenched ideas about male emotion. Through readings of works by Thoreau, Lowell, and W. E. B. Du Bois, and of twentieth century authors such as Hemingway and Kerouac, this book questions the persistence of the emotionally alienated male in narratives of white middle-class masculinity and addresses the political and social implications of male emotional release."

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9780231120340

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Reviews

This book questions the persistence of the emotionally alienated male in narratives of white, middle-class masculinity and addresses the political and social implications of male emotional expression. Brandeis Review This collection of eleven scholarly essays successfully combines a cultural history of male emotion with detailed readings of male-authored texts... Shamir and Travis's collection discovers male emotionality to be far more intricate than many facile equations of masculine subjectivity... are inclined to allow for. -- Berthold Schoene Modernism/Modernity

This book questions the persistence of the emotionally alienated male in narratives of white, middle-class masculinity and addresses the political and social implications of male emotional expression. -- Brandeis Review This collection of eleven scholarly essays successfully combines a cultural history of male emotion with detailed readings of male-authored texts... Shamir and Travis's collection discovers male emotionality to be far more intricate than many facile equations of masculine subjectivity... are inclined to allow for. -- Berthold Schoene, Modernism/Modernity

Author Information

Milette Shamir is lecturer in American literature at Tel Aviv University. Jennifer Travis is assistant professor of English at St. John's University in New York.

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