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The Fragility of Manhood
David Greven
其他書名
Hawthorne, Freud, and the Politics of Gender
出版
Ohio State University Press
, 2016-01-08
主題
Literary Criticism / General
Literary Criticism / American / General
Literary Criticism / Subjects & Themes / General
Literary Criticism / Subjects & Themes / Gender Identity
ISBN
0814252885
9780814252888
URL
http://books.google.com.hk/books?id=AKFwjwEACAAJ&hl=&source=gbs_api
註釋
Merging psychoanalytic and queer theory perspectives,
The Fragility of Manhood: Hawthorne, Freud, and the Politics of Gender
reframes Nathaniel Hawthorne's work as a critique of the normative construction of American male identity. Revising Freudian and Lacanian literary theory and establishing the concepts of narcissism and the gaze as central, David Greven argues that Hawthorne represents normative masculinity as fundamentally dependent on the image. In ways that provocatively intersect with psychoanalytic theory, Hawthorne depicts subjectivity as identification with an illusory and deceptive image of wholeness and unity. As Hawthorne limns it, male narcissism both defines and decenters male heterosexual authority. Moreover, in Greven's view, Hawthorne critiques hegemonic manhood's recourse to domination as a symptom of the traumatic instabilities at the core of traditional models of male identity. Hawthorne's representation of masculinity as psychically fragile has powerful implications for his depictions of female and queer subjectivity in works such as the tales "Rappaccini's Daughter" and "The Gentle Boy," the novel
The Blithedale Romance,
and Hawthorne's critically neglected late, unfinished writings, such as
Septimius Felton
. Rereading Freud from a queer theory perspective, Greven reframes Freudian theory as a radical critique of traditional models of gender subjectivity that has fascinating overlaps with Hawthorne's work. In the chapter "Visual Identity," Greven also discusses the agonistic relationship between Hawthorne and Herman Melville and the intersection of queer themes, Hellenism, and classical art in their travel writings,
The Marble Faun,
and
Billy Budd
.