Masculinity and Crisis in Early Modern Narrative Literature
Klaus Wieland: Moderne Mannsbilder. Zur Semantik von ›Männlichkeit‹ in der deutschsprachigen Erzählliteratur der Frühen Moderne, 1890–1930. transcript 2024.
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.17169/ogj.2026.398Keywords:
Crisis, Masculinity, Modernity, LiteratureAbstract
Based on the observation that masculinity is less frequently addressed than femininity in current academic work on gender, Klaus Wieland sets out to examine the pluralisation of masculinities in narrative literature around 1900. This involves both the emergence of new male characters and the modernisation and transformation of old male types. The focus is clearly on representations and discourses rather than historical or social reality. In order to find out what becomes of hegemonic masculinity in the changing literary landscape of this era, the question is asked whether the emergence of alternative characters leads to a re-hierarchisation of values and thus to a lasting devaluation of hegemonic masculinity. And can this really be interpreted as evidence of the so-called ‘crisis of masculinity’? This is the starting point of this comprehensive study, which is based on a rich corpus of 76 works.
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