Screening Images of American Masculinity in the Age of Postfeminism (eBook, PDF)

Redaktion: Abele, Elizabeth; John, A.

• Format: PDF

Produktbeschreibung

This collection of essays presents a sampling of film and television texts, interrogating images of U.S. masculinity. Rather than using "postfeminist" as a definition of contemporary feminism, this collection uses the term to designate the period from the late 1980s on-as a point when feminist thought gradually became more mainstream. The movies and TV series examined here have achieved a level of sustained attention, from critical acclaim, to mass appeal, to cult status. Instead of beginning with a set hypothesis on the effect of the feminist movement on images of masculinity on film and television, these chapters represent a range of responses, that demonstrate how the conversations within these texts about American masculinity are often open-ended, allowing both male characters and male viewers a wider range of options. Defining the relationship between U.S. masculinity and American feminist movements of the twentieth century is a complex undertaking. The essays collected for this volume engage prominent film and television texts that directly interrogate images of U.S. masculinity that have appeared since second-wave feminism. The contributors have chosen textual examples whose protagonists actively struggle with the conflicting messages about masculinity. These protagonists are more often works-in-progress, acknowledging the limits of their negotiations and self-actualization. These chapters also cover a wide range of genres and decades: from action and fantasy to dramas and romantic comedy, from the late 1970s to today. Taken together, the chapters of Screening Images of American Masculinity in the AgeofPostfeminism interrogate "the possible" screened in popular movies and television series, confronting the multiple and competing visions of masculinity not after or beyond feminism but, rather, in its very wake.

Produktdetails

• Verlag: Bloomsbury eBooks US
• Seitenzahl: 1
• Erscheinungstermin: 3. Dezember 2015
• Englisch
• ISBN-13: 9798216213253
• Artikelnr.: 74830227

Autorenporträt

Elizabeth Abele is associate professor of English at SUNY Nassau Community College. John A. Gronbeck-Tedesco is assistant professor and convener of American studies at Ramapo College of New Jersey.

Inhaltsangabe

Screening Images of American Masculinity in the AgeofPostfeminism
List of Illustrations
Introduction: Liberating American Masculinity
Elizabeth Abele
Recovering Masculinities
1: Fashioning Flexibility: Racial Neoliberalism and the Vicissitudes of
Masculinity
Michael Litwack
2: "Any closer and you'd be Mom": The Limits of Post-Feminist Paternity in
the Films of Robin Williams
Katie Barnett
3: Rethinking the Nation and the Body Politic: The Wrestler and the Demise
of American Exceptionalism
John A. Gronbeck-Tedesco
4: The Bourne Refusal: Changing the Rules of the Game
Mary T. Hartson
Masculinities for Men and Women
5: Subverting the Master's Hero: Firefly's Malcolm Reynolds as a New Kind
of Space Cowboy
Laura L. Beadling
6: When Eleven Year-Olds Kick-Ass: Hit-Girl as Role Model or Victim?
Keith Friedlander
Negotiated Masculinities
7: "I'm listening": Analyzing the Masculine Example of Frasier Crane
Dustin Gann
8: Hanging With the Boys: Homosocial Bonding and Bromance Coupling in
Nip/Tuck and Boston Legal
Pamela Hill Nettleton
9: Some Assembly Required: Joss Whedon's Bridging of Masculinities in
Marvel Films' The Avengers
Derek S. McGrath
Loving Anti-Heroes
10: The Agency of Nostalgia in Mad Men
Maureen McKnight
11: "Out Like a Man": Straddling the Postfeminist Fence in Dexter and
Breaking Bad
Brenda Boudreau
12: Last Men Standing: Will Smith as the Obsolete Patriarchal Male
Elizabeth Abele