Against the Grain; The Poetics of Non-Normative Masculinity in Decadent French Literature

ISBN-13: 9781800791756 / Angielski / Miękka / 2021 / 260 str.

Mathew Rickard

Opis

This book explores the representation of masculinity as a literary concept in Decadent literature to demonstrate how the movement both appropriated and subverted patriarchal assumptions surrounding reading and writing. The book opens up fresh ground for the appraisal and analysis of gender in French studies and beyond.

Recenzje

«In a lively and engaging style, Rickard deploys contemporary queer and masculinities theories to bring to light a Decadent poetics of masculinity. This is an impressive work which traces a trajectory from Decadent literature to representations of queer identities in twentieth and twenty-first century French literature.» (Nigel Harkness, Newcastle University)

«In this provocative and engaging contribution to nineteenth-century masculinity studies that focuses on the poetics of non-normative decadent types in selected novels by J.-K. Huysmans, Jean Lorrain, Rachilde and Octave Mirbeau, Rickard invites us to reflect on what it means to be a man at the fin de siècle.» (Jane Desmarais, Goldsmiths, University of London)

Spis treści

Contents: «Idées Masculines»: The Intertextual Poetics of Masculinity in Joris- Karl Huysmans's À Rebours (1884) - «Vers le sabbat»: Occult Initiation and Non- Normative Masculinity in Jean Lorrain's Monsieur de Phocas (1901) - Who's on Top?: Dequeering and Requeering Rachilde - The (Im)potency of the Pen(is): Mirbeau's Masculine Author(ity) in Le Calvaire (1886).

O autorze

Mathew Rickard studied French and Spanish literature and culture at Queen's University Belfast, where he recently earned his PhD in French studies. He is currently maître de langue at the Université de Picardie Jules Verne's antenna campus in Beauvais, France. He has presented and published his work in English and French in the UK, Ireland, and mainland Europe. His broader research interests include book culture, intertextuality, transgression and gender studies, with a particular focus on masculinities and queer theory.