"In Reality Every Reader Is, While He Is Reading, the Reader of His Own Self": Reconsidering the Importance of Narrative and Savoir Littéraire for Masculinity Studies. (April 2019)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Horlacher, Stefan
• Other Names: Cserni Robert T. guest-editor.; Kimmel Michael guest-editor.
• Is Part Of: Men and masculinities. Volume 22:Number 1(2019)
• Page Start: 75
• Page End: 84
• Publication Date: 2019-04
• Subjects: Masculine Gender Identity -- Narrative -- Literature -- Co-construction -- Performativity; Men's studies -- Periodicals; Étude de genre; Étude sur les hommes; Homme; Identité masculine; Masculinité; Perception sociale; Recherche; Rôle selon le sexe; Ressource Internet (Descripteur de forme); Périodique électronique (Descripteur de forme); 305.3105
• DOI: 10.1177/1097184X18805554
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1097-184X

Abstract

Given the strong emphasis on plurality, which is so characteristic of current masculinity studies, the relationship between masculinity as a concept and its plural forms has to be rethought. If we conceive of masculinity as having a largely discursive and narrative structure and accept that narrative is an ontological condition of social life which exemplarily manifests itself in literature and the arts, it is precisely here that a plethora of narratives of masculinity becomes 'visible', with the performative function of narrative allowing for a variety of new masculine gender identities and subject positions that only become available through their conception in literature/the arts.