Ways of Being Male Representing Masculinities in Children's Literature [Hardcover]

Given the substantial impact of feminism on childrens literature and culture during the last quarter century, it comes as no surprise that gender studies have focused predominantly on issues of female representation. The question of how the same patriarchal ideology structured representations of male bodies and behaviors was until very recently a marginal discussion. Now that masculinity has emerges as an overt theme in childrens literature and film, critical consideration of the subject is timely, if not long overdue

Ways of Being Maleaddresses this new concern in an unprecedented collection of essays examining how contemporary debates about masculinity are reflected in fiction and film for young adults. An outstanding team of scholars elucidates the ways in which different versions of male identity are constructed and presented to young audiences. The contributors, drawn from a variety of academic disciplines, employ international discourses in literary criticism, feminism, social sciences, film theory, psychoanalytic criticism, and queer theory in their wide-ranging exploration of male representation. With its illuminating array of perspectives, this pioneering survey brings a long neglected subject into sharp focus.

Series Editors Foreword. Preface. 1. Making Boys Appear: The Masculinity of Children's Fiction, Perry Nodelman. 2. Picturing the Male: Representations of Masculinity in Picture Books, Kerry Mallan. 3. A Page Just Waiting to be Written on : Masculinity Schemata and the Dynamics of Subjective Agency in Junior Fiction, John Stephens. 4. Redeeming Masculinity at the End of the Second Millennium: Narrative Reconfigurations of Masculinity in Children's Fiction, Beverley Pennell. 5. Reframing Masculinity: Female-to-Male Cross-dressing, Victoria Flanagan. 6. Come Lads and Ladettes: Gendering Bodies and Gendering Behaviors, Kimberley Reynolds. 7. Masculinity as Social Semiotic: Identity Politics alS-