Men, Masculinities, and Popular Romance

Jonathan A. Allan

Oct 2019 · Routledge

About this ebook

Men, Masculinities, and Popular Romance seeks to open a lively and accessible discussion between critical studies of men and masculinities and popular romance studies, especially its continued interest in what Janice Radway has called "the purity of his maleness."

Popular romance novels, perhaps more than any other genre, explore sexuality and gender, creating an ideal space in which to consider and explore theoretical models that think seriously about gender. The romance novel has long been criticized and celebrated by feminist critics. How can these novels maintain, according to some, feminist ideals, while also upholding what Raewyn Connell has long theorized as "hegemonic masculinity"?

This volume is an original and important contribution examining the previously underexamined nexus of masculinity and popular romance studies. It will be of key interest to undergraduates and postgraduates in Masculinities, Gender and Women’s Studies, and Literary Studies, and highly relevant to courses in Masculinity Studies, Pop Culture Studies, Queer Studies and Sexuality Studies.

About the author

Jonathan A. Allan is the Canada Research Chair in Queer Theory and Assistant Professor of Gender and Women's Studies at Brandon University. He received his PhD from the Centre for Comparative Literature at the University of Toronto. He was the co-author, with Elizabeth Nelson, of Inversions of Power and Paradox: Studies of Monstrosity and is the author of Reading from Behind: A Cultural Analysis of the Anus.