Aging Masculinities in Contemporary U.S. Fiction (Global Masculinities)

'Are older men interesting? This volume insists, and demonstrates, that they have been central figures for many intriguing writers of fiction.' --Margaret Morganroth Gullette, Women's Studies Research Center, Brandeis University, USA 'Revisiting contemporary US fiction by focusing on cultural representations of aging masculinities not only encourages a reassessment of such texts in terms of dominant cultural beliefs that challenges prevailing perspectives on gender and age, but more importantly offers insights into how the form influences our perceptions by either supporting or subverting preconceived notions of masculinity.' --Roberta Maierhofer, Center for Inter-American Studies, University of Graz, Austria 'A much-needed and impressive contribution to the fields of age studies and gender studies, both of which have overlooked the study of men and masculinity. Focusing on representations of aging and old men in U.S. fiction, contributors produce a rich array of images and interpretations that challenge the dominant masculinity script and redress the cultural invisibility of older men.' --Thomas R. Cole, McGovern Chair in Medical Humanities and Director of the McGovern Center for Humanities and Ethics, University of Texas, USA This book focuses on representations of aging masculinities in contemporary U.S. fiction, including shifting perceptions of physical and sexual prowess, depression, and loss, but also greater wisdom and confidence, legacy, as well as new affective patterns. The collection also incorporates factors such as race, sexuality and religion. The volume includes studies, amongst others, on Philip Roth, Paul Auster, Toni Morrison, Ernest Gaines, and Edmund White. Ultimately, this study proves that men's aging experiences as described in contemporary U.S. literature and culture are as complex and varied as those of their female counterparts. Josep M. Armengol is Professor of U.S. Literature and Gender Studies at Universidad de Castilla-La Mancha, Spain. He is the author of Masculinities in Black and White: Manliness and Whiteness in (African) American Literature (2014), among others, and is Director of the project 'No Country for Old Men? Representations of Masculinity and Aging in Contemporary U.S. Fiction'. Acknowledgments Contents Notes on Contributors No Country for Old Men? An Introduction Works Cited Gendering Age Harvest Time for Updike’s Rabbit: Sex Dies Harder Than Gender Introduction Harry’s Aging Crisis Breaking Gender Boundaries New Sexual Pleasure Conclusion Works Cited Geographies of Aging in Jhumpa Lahiri’s “The Third and Final Continent” and Jeffrey Eugenides’ Middlesex Works Cited The Aging Male Body as a Contested Site of Privilege: Literary Representations in Jane Smiley’s A Thousand Acres and Elizabeth Strout’s Olive Kitteridge Masculinities and the Aging Male Body Jane Smiley’s a Thousand Acres (1991): Holding on to Privilege Elizabeth Strout’s Olive Kitteridge (2008): Intimacy and Vulnerability Conclusions Works Cited Men’s Aging in Popular Fiction “You Are All Too Old to Do Anything but Get Yourselves Killed:” Age and Masculinity in Stephen King’s It, Dreamcatcher and Doctor Sleep Introduction: Age and the Pitfalls of Patriarchal Masculinity Horror, Stephen King’s It, Dreamcatcher and Doctor Sleep and Old Age Middle-Age Men, Masculinity, and Strategies of Contestation in Stephen King’s It, Dreamcatcher and Doctor Sleep Conclusion Works Cited ‘‘To Oldie Go”: From James T. Kirk and Jean-Luc Picard to Samuel Lord and the Reconstruction of the Aging Male Body in the Final Frontier Space Cowboys in the New Frontier Aging in the Final Frontier: Kirk/Shatner and Picard/Stewart as Old Men on Screen Picard 2.0 and Shatner’s Samuel Lord: A New Perspective of Aging Masculinity Conclusion: “I Was Not Living, I Was Waiting to Die”. Toward a New Portrayal of the Aging Male Body Works Cited Older Men in Autobiography and Memoir Self-Representation “Between Two”: Aging Males and the “Otherness Within” in Philip Roth’s Patrimony The Trope of the Maternal-Feminine and the Ethics of the Relationship with the Elderly as “Other” Conclusion Works Cited Reconstructing the (Masculine) Self from Old Age: Memories of the Aching Male Body in Paul Auster’s Winter Journal The Body as a Text Composed of Scars and Pains The Body in Rooms/The Rooms as Bodies Works Cited Aging Beyond Whiteness Black Masculinities and Aging in Toni Morrison’s The Bluest Eye and Love Aging and Black Masculinity Cholly vs. Blue Jack: Belonging, Hierarchy of Masculinities, and Trauma in The Bluest Eye Dark Vs. Sandler: Parenting, Interdependence, and Healing in Love Works Cited Aging Men in Contemporary Arab American Literature Written by Women Gerontological Studies on Arab American Communities Arabian Jazz and Crescent: Non-Constrictive Aging Father Figures in the Fiction of Diana Abu-Jaber Going Going and a Map of Home: Alternative Manhoods in Transnational Grandfathers The Disengagement of Arab American Men in Old Age: The Case of Ibrahim in The Night Counter The Nuances of Transnationalism in Promoting Alternative Arab (American) Aging Masculinities Works Cited Queering Age Sex and Text: Queering Older Men’s Sexuality in Contemporary U.S. Fiction Introduction Rethinking Aging Masculinities in Contemporary U.S. Male Fiction(s) Works Cited On Long-Lasting Humanimal Friendships: Gayness, Aging, and Disease in Lily and the Octopus Molarity, Molecularity, and Becoming-Animal Old Age and Homosexuality Fable, Childhood and Memory Metaphors of the Sick, Elderly Dog Conclusion: Becoming Lily Works Cited Index