HIST 346 Masculinity: History and Theory (Not offered 1998-99)

Taking as its starting point recent theoretical explorations of gender and the social construction of gendered identities, this course will consider historical studies of male identity and male social roles. The course will begin with an analysis of the theoretical premises that have informed accounts of masculinity written by scholars working in disparate fields of inquiry. Most of the course, however, will be dedicated to an exploration of various idioms of masculinity in past societies. Topics to be considered will include: the gendered nature of the Victorian middle-class family in Britain and the United States and the identities of men in those families; the role played by the trials of Oscar Wilde in subverting Victorian codes of masculinity in Britain in the 1890s and in heralding the emergence of a new, gay male identity; the connection between athleticism, militarism and ideologies of masculinity in Europe and the United States in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries; the American male during the Cold War; and the shifting contours of race, masculinity, and identity in contemporary society. An interdisciplinary enterprise that will draw on visual and cinematic, as well as textual, sources-and that will engage in theoretical, as well as historical exegesis-this course seeks to engage students in an ongoing discussion of the meanings of manhood. Evaluation will be based on class participation, two interpretive essays (8-10 pages each), and a self-scheduled final exam. Groups A and B

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