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A Dangerous Fiction

Subverting Hegemonic Masculinity through the Novels of Michael Chabon and Tom Wolfe

by Louise Colbran (Author)
©2013 Thesis 259 Pages

Summary

Masculinity is one of the key issues at stake in contemporary writing and gender studies. In their novels, Michael Chabon and Tom Wolfe both consistently make masculinity a prominent thematic and ideological concern. This study is the first full length scholarly work to take their work and their treatment of masculinity as its focus. How do these American authors critique the representation of masculinity within popular culture in Wonder Boys, The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay and Summerland, A Man in Full and The Bonfire of the Vanities? How do popular images of masculinity function for individual men and the way they experience their masculinities?
A Dangerous Fiction investigates the ways in which Chabon and Wolfe strip masculinity of any illusion of an essential nature and expose it as something highly culturally dependent and explains how these novels suggest to understand masculinity in the contemporary world.

Details

Pages
259
Year
2013
ISBN (PDF)
9783035104844
ISBN (Softcover)
9783034311168
DOI
10.3726/978-3-0351-0484-4
Language
English
Publication date
2012 (September)
Keywords
Literary Criticism Studies of Motifs and Themes Women's and Gender Studies English and American Cultural and Regional Studies 20th Century and Contemporary American Literature
Published
Bern, Berlin, Bruxelles, Frankfurt am Main, New York, Oxford, Wien, 2012. 259 pp.

Biographical notes

Louise Colbran (Author)

Louise Colbran studied English Literature and completed her PhD at Macquarie University, Sydney, and has contributed scholarly articles to Aethlon and the collection Remaking Literary History. Her research interests include the American novel, gender and popular culture. She is currently an Associate Lecturer in the English Department at Macquarie University, Sydney.

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Title: A Dangerous Fiction