Men in Fiction: Toward a History of Masculinity through U.S. Literature and Cinema, 20th and 21st Centuries
Given the few existing diachronic studies of masculinity in U.S. literary history, the project "Men in Fiction: Toward a History of Masculinity through U.S. Literature and Cinema, 20th and 21st Centuries" attempts to fill in this gap by exploring the changing nature of masculinity from the beginning of the twentieth century up to the present. As a continuation of the research developed in two previous projects ((IM, Exps. nº 42/98 and 62/03), the goal of the present study is to investigate how the social, political, economic and cultural factors that have taken place throughout the 20th and 21st centuries have contributed to shaping different types of masculinity. The intention is to explore them through the analysis of literary and filmic representations in order to deconstruct traditional male behaviors. Representations of alternative masculinities that might contribute to creating more egalitarian ways of being a man will also be investigated.
Objectives
- Explore the changing constructions of masculinity throughout the history of the United States according to social, political, economic and cultural factors
- Analyze plural constructions of masculinities through literary and filmic representations
- Deconstruct traditional images of masculinity
- Give visibility to alternative forms of masculinity that might contribute to creating more egalitarian ways of being a man