1.

Record Nr.

UNINA9910784130403321

Autore

Greven David

Titolo

Men beyond desire [[electronic resource] ] : manhood, sex, and violation in American literature / / David Greven

Pubbl/distr/stampa

New York, : Palgrave Macmillan, 2005

ISBN

1-281-36789-3

9786611367893

1-4039-7711-9

Edizione

[1st ed.]

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (XII, 294 p.)

Disciplina

810.9/353

Soggetti

American literature - 19th century - History and criticism

Masculinity in literature

Social isolation in literature

Self-control in literature

Chastity in literature

Sex role in literature

Violence in literature

Desire in literature

Sex in literature

Men in literature

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Nota di bibliografia

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

Sommario/riassunto

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.