What is Masculinity?: Historical Dynamics from Antiquity to the Contemporary World (Genders and Sexualities in History)

Across history, the ideas and practices of male identity have varied much between time and place: masculinity proves to be a slippery concept, not available to all men, sometimes even applied to women. This book analyses the dynamics of 'masculinity' as both an ideology and lived experience - how men have tried, and failed, to be 'Real Men'. Front Matter....Pages i-xiv Introduction....Pages 1-14 Front Matter....Pages 15-15 The History of Masculinity: An Outdated Concept?....Pages 17-34 Can the Hegemon Speak? Reading Masculinity through Anthropology....Pages 35-56 The Whig Interpretation of Masculinity? Honour and Sexuality in Late Medieval Manhood....Pages 57-75 Masculinity without Conflict: Noblemen in Eighth- and Ninth-Century Francia....Pages 76-93 Front Matter....Pages 95-95 Masculinities in Early Hellenistic Athens....Pages 97-113 Masculinity As a World Historical Category of Analysis....Pages 114-138 Hegemonic Masculinities? Assessing Change and Processes of Change in Elite Masculinity, 1700–1900....Pages 139-166 Masculinity and Fatherhood in England c. 1760–1830....Pages 167-186 Front Matter....Pages 187-187 Athenian Pederasty and the Construction of Masculinity....Pages 189-225 An Orchard, a Love Letter and Three Bastards: The Formation of Adult Male Identity in a Fifteenth-Century Family....Pages 226-244 ‘To Make a Man Without Reason’: Examining Manhood and Manliness in Early Modern England....Pages 245-262 ‘Boys, Semi-Men and Bearded Scholars’: Maturity and Manliness in Early Nineteenth-Century Oxford....Pages 263-282 Front Matter....Pages 283-283 St Francis of Assisi and the Making of Settlement Masculinity, 1883–1914....Pages 285-302 Homes Fit for Homos: Joe Orton, Masculinity and the Domesticated Queer....Pages 303-322 Three Faces of Fatherhood As a Masculine Category: Tyrants, Teachers, and Workaholics As ‘Responsible Family Men’ during Canada’s Baby Boom....Pages 323-346 Front Matter....Pages 347-347 Cow Boys, Cattle Men and Competing Masculinities on the Texas Frontier....Pages 349-369 Valorising Samurai Masculinity through Biblical Language: Christianity, Oscar Wilde and Natsume Soseki’s Novel Kokoro....Pages 370-388 ‘Proper Government and Discipline’: Family Religion and Masculine Authority in Nineteenth-Century Canada....Pages 389-412 Punters and Their Prostitutes: British Soldiers, Masculinity and Maisons Tolérées in the First World War....Pages 413-430 Front Matter....Pages 431-431 Masculinities, Histories and Memories....Pages 433-452 Back Matter....Pages 453-461 Cover 1 Half-Title 2 Title 4 Copyright 5 Table of Contens 6 List of Illustrations 9 Acknowledgements 10 Notes on Contributors 11 1 Introduction 16 Part I Paradigms and Nomenclature 30 2 The History of Masculinity: An Outdated Concept? 31 3 Can the Hegemon Speak? Reading Masculinity through Anthropology 49 4 The Whig Interpretation of Masculinity? Honour and Sexuality in Late Medieval Manhood 71 5 Masculinity without Conflict: Noblemen in Eighth- and Ninth-Century Francia 90 Part II Masculinity and Hegemony 108 6 Masculinities in Early Hellenistic Athens 109 7 Masculinity As a World Historical Category of Analysis 126 8 Hegemonic Masculinities? Assessing Change and Processes of Change in Elite Masculinity, 1700–1900 151 9 Masculinity and Fatherhood in England c. 1760–1830 179 Part III Maturing and Adulthood 199 10 Athenian Pederasty and the Construction of Masculinity 200 11 An Orchard, a Love Letter and Three Bastards: The Formation of Adult Male Identity in a Fifteenth-Century Family 237 12 ‘To Make a Man Without Reason’: Examining Manhood and Manliness in Early Modern England 256 13 ‘Boys, Semi-Men and Bearded Scholars’: Maturity and Manliness in Early Nineteenth-Century Oxford 274 Part IV Domesticities 294 14 St Francis of Assisi and the Making of Settlement Masculinity, 1883–1914 295 15 Homes Fit for Homos: Joe Orton, Masculinity and the Domesticated Queer 313 16 Three Faces of Fatherhood As a Masculine Category: Tyrants, Teachers, and Workaholics As ‘Responsible Family Men’ during Canada’s Baby Boom 333 Part V Modern Frontiers 357 17 Cow Boys, Cattle Men and Competing Masculinities on the Texas Frontier 358 18 Valorising Samurai Masculinity through Biblical Language:Christianity, Oscar Wilde and Natsume Soseki’s Novel Kokoro 379 19 ‘Proper Government and Discipline’: Family Religion and Masculine Authority in Nineteenth- Century Canada 398 20 Punters and Their Prostitutes: British Soldiers, Masculinity and Maisons Tolérées in the First World War 422 Conclusion 440 21 Masculinities, Histories and Memories 441 Index 461 What is masculinity? Looked at across time - from antiquity to the modern day - the contours of 'manliness' take on an intriguing complexity. As the various contributors to this volume demonstrate, the ideas and practices of male identity have varied considerably over time and place: masculinity proves to be a slippery concept, one not available to all men, and one sometimes even applied to certain women. By looking at masculinity over time, this ground-breaking book presents a variety of new perspectives on the nature of masculinity, its social and political functions, and the methods by which historians and others might seek to analyse it. Each author provides both a case study of what 'masculinity' means (or fails to mean) in a specific historical moment, and contributes to a wider collective analysis of the changing historical dynamics to male identity. Overall, the book provides a key methodological landmark in the study of gender history