(Re)constructing Masculinity: Representations of Men and Masculinity in Australian Young Adult Literature

Authors

  • Troy Potter Australian Catholic University, Australia

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.21153/pecl2007vol17no1art1203

Keywords:

masculinity, masculine discourses, hegemonic masculinity, R.W. Connell, misogyny, heteronormativity

Abstract

In this essay, I analyse how the representation of masculine discourses, and the dialogic processes at work between those present (or absent) function to support, to undermine or to challenge the current hegemonic masculinity in two Australian Young Adult realist texts, David Metzenthen's Boys of Blood and Bone (2004) and Scot Gardner's Burning Eddy (2003). While various and viable masculine schemata, and the dialectical relations between them, may exist in society and be represented within a text, I argue that the masculine constructions which are represented and privileged in the chosen two texts ultimately perpetuate and support normative hegemonic masculinity, that is, masculinity which can be characterised by heterosexuality, a desire for mateship, a sense of responsibility or duty, actual or implicit misogyny, and an inability or unwillingness to express emotion and taciturnity (Romøren and Stephens 2002, p.220).

Metrics

Metrics Loading ...

Author Biography

  • Troy Potter, Australian Catholic University, Australia
    Troy Potter is a Science/English teacher at De La Salle College in Melbourne. He is currently completing his PhD at the Australian Catholic University, focussing on the representation of maternal madness and mental illness in children’s literature.

References

Buchbinder, David (1994) Masculinities and Identities. Melbourne, Melbourne University Press.

Connell, R.W. (2005) Masculinities (Second Edition). Crows Nest, Allen & Unwin

Gardner, Scot (2003) Burning Eddy. Sydney, Pan Macmillan.

Horrocks, Roger (1994) Masculinity in Crisis: Myths, Fantasies and Realities. New York, St Martin’s Press.

McGillis, Roderick (1996) The Nimble Reader: Literary Theory and Children’s Literature. New York and London, Twayne Publishers.

Metzenthen, David (2004) Boys of Blood and Bone. Camberwell, Penguin.

Pennell, Beverley (2001) ‘Shifting Versions of Masculinity in Australian Children’s Literature, 1953-1997’, Bookbird 39.2: 6-11.

Prchal, Tim (2004) ‘The Bad Boys and the New Man: The Role of Tom Sawyer and Similar Characters in the Reconstruction of Masculinity’, American Literary Realism 36.3: 187-205.

Reynolds, Kimberley (2002) ‘Come Lads and Ladettes: Gendering Bodies and Gendering Behaviors’, in John Stephens (ed) Ways of Being Male: Representing Masculinities in Children’s Literature and Film. New York, Routledge.

Rikard, John (1988) Australia: A Cultural History. Melbourne, Longman Cheshire.

Romøren, Rolf and John Stephens (2002) ‘Representing Masculinities in Norwegian and Australian Young Adult Fiction: A Comparative Study’, in John Stephens (ed.) Ways of Being Male: Representing Masculinities in Children’s Literature and Film. New York, Routledge.

Stephens, John (2002) ‘“A Page Just Waiting to Be Written On”: Masculinity Schemata and the Dynamics of Subjective Agency in Junior Fiction’, in John Stephens (ed) Ways of Being Male: Representing Masculinities in Children’s Literature and Film. New York, Routledge.

Downloads

Published

2007-05-01

Issue

Section

Articles

How to Cite

“(Re)constructing Masculinity: Representations of Men and Masculinity in Australian Young Adult Literature” (2007) Papers: Explorations into Children’s Literature, 17(1), pp. 28–35. doi:10.21153/pecl2007vol17no1art1203.

Similar Articles

1-10 of 27

You may also start an advanced similarity search for this article.