Out of Bounds : Male Writers and Gendered Criticism

Until recently, ""masculinity"" and its impact on literary production and reception has received scant attention in the field of literary criticism. Although critics certainly have been interested in examining gender, they have tended to be far more concerned with the ""feminine"" side of the equation than with the ""masculine"". This book is an attempt to redress that imbalance. Positing that patriarchy victimizes men as well as women, the 15 original essays in ""Out of Bounds"" explore how certain male writers from the American and British canon have responded to the confines of the masculine code. The contributors apply a wide range of critical approaches and probe the gendered perspective in a variety of ways. These include examining a male writer's relation to his own masculinity; looking at his adoption of ""feminine"" values and attributes; discussing his subversion of gender stereotypes and oppositions; and exploring his conception of the binary terms ""masculine/feminine"". The essays analyze characters, authorial inscriptions, narrative and poetic form and the relation of gender and genre.