Pinks, Pansies, and Punks : The Rhetoric of Masculinity in American Literary Culture

Pinks, Pansies, and Punks charts the construction of masculinity within American literary culture from the 1930s to the 1970s. Penner documents the emergence of "macho criticism," and explores how debates about "hard" and "soft" masculinity influenced the class struggles of the 1930s, anti-communism in the 1940s and 1950s, and the clash between the Old Left and the New Left in the 1960s. By extending literary culture to include not just novels, plays, and poetry, but diaries, journals, manifestos, screenplays, and essays on psychology and sociology, Penner unveils the multiplicity of gender attitudes that emerge in each of the decades he addresses. (2011) Introduction: A Short History Of Macho Criticism -- Healthy Nerves And Sturdy Physiques: Remaking The Male Body Of Literary Culture In The 1930s -- Doughfaces, Eggheads, And Softies: Gendered Epithets And American Literary Culture In The 1940s -- Highbrows And Lowbrows: Squares, Beats, Hipsters, White Negroes, New Critics, And American Literary Culture In The 1950s -- Reforming The Hard Body: The Old Left, The Counterculture, And The Masculine Kulturkampf Of The 1960s -- The Gender Upheavals Of The Late 1960s And Early 1970s: The Black Panthers, Gay Liberation, And Radical Feminism -- Epilogue: The End Of Innuendo. James Penner. Includes Bibliographical References And Index. The author charts the construction of masculinity within American literary culture from the 1930s to the 1970s. He examines the macho criticism that originated in the 1930s within the high modernist New York intellectual circle and tracks the issues of class struggle, anti-communism, and the clash between the Old and New Left in the 1960s. By extending literary culture to include not just novels, plays, and poetry, but diaries, journals, manifestos, essays, literary criticism, journalism, non-fiction, essays on psychology and sociology, and screenplays, he foregrounds the multiplicity of gender attitudes available in each of the historical moments he addresses