Contested Masculinities: Crises in Colonial Male Identity from Joseph Conrad to Satyajit Ray [Paperback]

Exploring how English masculinity - that was so contingent on the relative health of the British imperial project - negotiated the decline and ultimate dissolution of the empire by the middle of the twentieth century, this book argues that by defining itself in relation to indigenous masculinity, English masculinity began to share a common idiom with its colonial other. The rhetoric of indigenous masculinity, therefore, both mimicked and departed from its metropolitan counterpart. The study combines an interdisciplinary approach with a focus that is not limited to a single colonial society but ranges from colonial Bengal, Burma, Borneo and finally to colonial Australia.

List of Illustrations.  Acknowledgments  1. Introduction: Crises in Colonial Male Identity  2. Making English-Men and Unmaking Empire in Joseph Conrads Lord Jim  3. Performing Masculinity, Playing Cricket: Bodyline and Late-Imperial British Identity  4. Of Clubs and Concubines: Reading Imperial Authority in George Orwells Burmese Days  5. Desire is for Men who are Men: The Politics of Masculinity in Satyajit Rays The Home and the World.  Epilogue.  Notes.  Bibliography.  Index