A man's game : masculinity and the anti-aesthetics of American literary naturalism /
John Dudley.
- Tuscaloosa : University of Alabama Press, c2004.
- viii, 222 p. ; 24 cm.
- Studies in American literary realism and naturalism .
Originally presented as author's thesis (doctoral)--Tulane University, 2001.
Includes bibliographical references (p. [205]-215) and index.
Inside and outside the ring : the establishment of a masculinist aesthetic sensibility -- "Subtle brotherhood" in Stephen Crane's tales of adventure : alienation, anxiety, and the rites of manhood -- "Beauty unmans me" : diminished manhood and the leisure class in Norris and Wharton -- "A man only in form" : the roots of naturalism in African American literature.
Publisher description: A Man's Game explores the development of American literary naturalism as it relates to definitions of manhood in many of the movement's key texts and the aesthetic goals of writers such as Stephen Crane, Jack London, Frank Norris, Edith Wharton, Charles Chestnutt, and James Weldon Johnson. John Dudley argues that in the climate of the late 19th century, when these authors were penning their major works, literary endeavors were widely viewed as frivolous, the work of ladies for ladies, who comprised the vast majority of the dependable reading public. Male writers such as Crane and Norris defined themselves and their work in contrast to this perception of literature. Women like Wharton, on the other hand, wrote out of a skeptical or hostile reaction to the expectations of them as woman writers. Dudley explores a number of social, historical, and cultural developments that catalyzed the masculine impulse underlying literary naturalism: the rise of spectator sports and masculine athleticism; the professional role of the journalist, adopted by many male writers, allowing them to camouflage their primary role as artist; and post-Darwinian interest in the sexual component of natural selection. A Man's Game also explores the surprising adoption of a masculine literary naturalism by African-American writers at the beginning of the 20th century, a strategy, despite naturalism's emphasis on heredity and genetic determinism, that helped define the black struggle for racial equality. John Dudley is Assistant Professor of English at the University of South Dakota.
0817313478 (alk. paper)
2003018414
American fiction--History and criticism.--20th century Naturalism in literature. American fiction--Male authors--History and criticism. American fiction--African American authors--History and criticism. African American men--Intellectual life. African American men in literature. Masculinity in literature. Aesthetics, American. Men in literature.