This collection of essays focuses on the girl sleuth, made famous by Nancy Drew, but also characterized by other detectives like Cherry Ames, Trixie Belden, Linda Carlton, and, in today's world, by Veronica Mars and Hermione Granger.

Much has been written about the girl sleuth in fiction, a feminist figure who embodies all the potential wit, drive and zest of girlhood. Her male counterpart, however, has received much less critical attention despite his popularity in the wider culture. This collection of twelve essays examines the boy detective and his genre from a wide variety of critical perspectives and address issues involving these young characters who stand on the cusp of manhood and boyhood, heirs to the patriarchy yet still concerned with first crushes and soda shop romances. Series explored include the Hardy Boys,...

Few movie genres have highlighted the male body more effectively than the "sword-and-sandal" film, where the rippling torso and the bulging muscle are displayed for all to appreciate. Carrying his ubiquitously phallic sword and dressed in traditional garb calculated to highlight his magnificent physique, the sword-and-sandal hero is capable of toppling great nations, rescuing heroines, defeating monsters, and generally saving the day. Each of these essays examines the issues of masculinity and utility addressed in the sword-and-sandal genre. The contributors offer insights on a film form...

This book is a collection of new essays, with the general objective of filling a gap in the literature about sex and science fiction. Although some work has been published, none of it is recent. The essays herein explore the myriad ways in which authors writing in the genre, regardless of format (e.g., print, film, television, etc.), envision very different beings expressing this most fundamental of human behaviors.

Spartacus, the Thracian gladiator turned rebel leader, endures as a near-mythic hero who fought for the oppressed against a Roman oligarchy built on the backs of slave labor. The image of Spartacus as a noble if doomed avenger is familiar and his story has been retold through history as a cautionary tale about social injustice. The television series Spartacus takes a different view, with a violent depiction of the man and his times and a focus on the archetype of the gladiator--powerful, courageous and righteous. This collection of new essays studies the series as an exploration of...

The narrative re-tellings of the life, reign, and death of the English King Edward II (reigned 1307-1327) present a unique opportunity for scholars of sexuality in the early modern era. This is because the works of authors like Christopher Marlowe, Michael Drayton, Sir Francis Hubert, Elizabeth Cary, and Richard Niccols were all inspired by the public, cultural memory fashioned from Edward's same-sex love affair with Piers Gaveston. As such, each of them presents a particular representation of and a specific discourse about male-male sexual relations in the Renaissance. In other words, what...