Masculinity in Fiction and Film - (Continuum Literary Studies) by Brian Baker (Hardcover)

About the Book

Covers wide range of popular British and American fiction and film including Westerns, spy fiction, science fiction and crime narratives.

Book Synopsis

This book looks at a wide range of fiction and film texts, from the 1950s to the present, in order to analyse the ways in which masculinity has been represented in popular culture in Britain and the United States. It covers numerous genres, including spy fiction, science fiction, the Western and police thrillers. Each chapter focuses on key forms of masculinity found in each genre, such as the 'double agent', the 'rogue cop' and the 'citizen-soldier'. Brian Baker takes a broad, contextual approach, placing a detailed discussion of key texts and issues concerning masculinity in their historical and cultural context. Written in a clear, accessible way, it explores the changing representation of men over the last fifty years.

Review Quotes

"Baker's work is a significant contribution to the field of Men's Studies because in it he connects masculinities with men's history and popular culture. This work aids in our understanding of the needs of America and Britain in the 20th century and how they created fictionalized masculinities to shape the lives of their men."- Cindy A. McLeod, The Rocky Mountain Review of Language and Literature, "Vol. 61, No. 1/ Spring 2007--Sanford Lakoff

'an ambitious and topical monograph ... comprehensive, encyclopedic, reading-focussed and theoretically accessible enough to appeal to students, and it genuinely opens up new conceptual ground, especially by juxtaposing British and American masculinities within their specific national contexts' Professor Berthold Schoene, University of Manchester

mentioned in Chronicle of Higher Education June 2006

About the Author

Brian Baker is Lecturer in English at Lancaster University, UK.