Male Perspectives in Atwood''s Bluebeard''s Egg and Hazzard''s The Transit of Venus

Postmodern revisions of fairy tales have influenced several discourses and disciplines especially during the second half of the twentieth century. In particular, during the course of postmodernism, the rewriting of classic fairy tales has contributed to the subversion of their stereotypical structures, thus advancing alternative re-readings. This work offers an investigation into gender discourse in two postmodern re-writings of Bluebeard, namely Margaret Atwoods Bluebeards Egg and Shirley Hazzards The Transit of Venus, especially focusing on male/queer perspectives that have not yet been taken into consideration. Starting from an overview on the diverse conceptualisations of the terms gender and sexuality in modern and contemporary times, this book analyses the birth and evolution of male studies and, subsequently, explores the ways in which they have influenced the interpretation of classical tales. By means of an intertwined and shifting process, which enables the characters of these contemporary revisions to disguise their identities within the pages and beyond their texts, the figure of Bluebeard reveals himself as the in-between pattern for contemporary gender conceptualisations. See more