21st Century
21st Century Literature
A01=Vartan P. Messier
African literature
African Psycho
Alain Mabanckou
American literature
American Psycho
anger
art
art criticism
Author_Vartan P. Messier
Breat Easton Ellis
Category=ATF
Category=ATJ
Category=DSK
Category=JBCC1
Category=JBSF
comparative literature
crisis of masculinity
dehumanization
desire
Disgrace
english translations
eq_art-fashion-photography
eq_bestseller
eq_biography-true-stories
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
eq_society-politics
European literature
fiction
gender identity
gender studies
gendered violence
identity
institutional sexism
J. M. Coetzee
learned sexism
lgbtq
LGBTQ+ studies
literary criticism
literature in translation
male sexuality
male violence
masculine identity
masculinity
masculinity studies
Michel Houellebecq
misogyny
monstrousness
norms
novels
political science
race
racial identity
sex
sex and sexuality
sexism
sexual violence
social justice
socialization
The Elementary Particles
traditional masculinity
womens' and gender studies
Product details
- ISBN 9780815637875
- Weight: 363g
- Dimensions: 152 x 228mm
- Publication Date: 15 Nov 2022
- Publisher: Syracuse University Press
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Paperback
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Social commentators, psychologists, and journalists all point to the idea that in the new millennium, traditional masculinity is in crisis. In contemporary film and literature, this predicament is often portrayed as a problem of desire—particularly, heterosexual desire. Male libido, it appears, is especially vicious when it is misguided. Yet the genesis of this problem is not consistently diagnosed. While some texts may situate it in the unbridled expression of human sexuality and its associated discourses, others contend it is the perverse result of popular constructions of sex and gender.
Addressing this conundrum, Errancies of Desire focuses on the intersections of phallocratic violence and masculine identity in contemporary works of fiction across three subcontinents: North America, Western Europe, and sub-Saharan Africa. In doing so, Messier details the ways in which male desire is predicated on mediated forms of predatory and misogynistic sexuality that cross national and cultural divides. Employing a comparative methodology, he interrogates common perceptions of national differences and masculine identities grounded in historical specificity. Errancies of Desire effectively argues that when associated symptoms of violent and sexist behavior are institutionalized and misguidedly construed as a masculine norm, all men can become monsters.
Addressing this conundrum, Errancies of Desire focuses on the intersections of phallocratic violence and masculine identity in contemporary works of fiction across three subcontinents: North America, Western Europe, and sub-Saharan Africa. In doing so, Messier details the ways in which male desire is predicated on mediated forms of predatory and misogynistic sexuality that cross national and cultural divides. Employing a comparative methodology, he interrogates common perceptions of national differences and masculine identities grounded in historical specificity. Errancies of Desire effectively argues that when associated symptoms of violent and sexist behavior are institutionalized and misguidedly construed as a masculine norm, all men can become monsters.
Vartan P. Messier is associate professor of English at Queensborough Community College (CUNY). His work has appeared in The Journal of Adaptation in Film and Performance and in New Cinemas: Journal of Contemporary Film.
