Read complete books and articles on: Masculinity in Films

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15 of the Best Books and Articles on: Masculinity in Films

as selected by Questia librarians

1.

Masked Men: Masculinity and the Movies in the Fifties » Read Now
by Steven Cohan. 330 pgs.

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Author Steven Cohan draws on popular publicity to link narratives of masculinity and the personae of Hollywood's leading men like John Wayne, Cary Grant, Marlon Brando, Rock Hudson, and others. Cohan analyzes the gender and sexual masquerades of their performances of masculinity and challenges the...
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Author Steven Cohan draws on popular publicity to link narratives of masculinity and the personae of Hollywood's leading men like John Wayne, Cary Grant, Marlon Brando, Rock Hudson, and others. Cohan analyzes the gender and sexual masquerades of their performances of masculinity and challenges the postwar ideal of the typical American male as that omnipresent, but invisible Man in a Gray Flannel Suit. 48 photos.
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2.

French Cinema in the 1980s: Nostalgia and the Crisis of Masculinity » Read Now
by Phil Powrie. 203 pgs.

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French Cinema in the 1980s is a set of critical essays on films which help to focus on a particular theme whose roots are in the 1970s, and which extends beyond the 1980s into the 1990s: the crisis of masculinity in contemporary French culture, and its interrelationship with nostalgia. After an...
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French Cinema in the 1980s is a set of critical essays on films which help to focus on a particular theme whose roots are in the 1970s, and which extends beyond the 1980s into the 1990s: the crisis of masculinity in contemporary French culture, and its interrelationship with nostalgia. After an introduction which gives a brief overview both of the crisis in the French film industry during the 1980s, and of the socio-political crisis of masculinity in the wake of 1970s feminism, there are three sections: the retro-nostalgic film, which emerged during the 1980s, and two more popular genres, the polar, or police thriller, and the comic film. Each section begins with a brief preface which highlights the major issues for the genre during the 1980s. The films discussed have all been distributed outside France, and are in many cases commercially available. The nostalgia section covers IUn amour de Swann, Un dimanche à la campagne, Jean de Florette/Manon des Sources, and Coup de foudre. The section on the police thriller begins with Truffaut's last film, Vivement dimanche!, and includes a chapter on three thrillers by a variety of directors (La Balance, Police, Détective). Its main focus, however, is on thrillers by the directors of the cinéma du look (Diva, Subway, Mauvais sang). The last section on the comic film looks at three films which were successful both in France and abroad: Trois hommes et un couffin (remade in Hollywood as Three Men and a Baby), La Vie est un long fleuve tranquille and, finally, Depardieu's gamble at cross-dressing, Tenue de soirée.
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3.

This Mad Masquerade: Stardom and Masculinity in the Jazz Age (Includes discussion of masculinity in films in multiple chapters) » Read Now
by Gaylyn Studlar. 324 pgs.

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Studlar looks at four major Hollywood male stars of the silent era--Rudolph Valentino, Douglas Fairbanks, John Barrymore, and Lon Chaney--to illuminate the cultural, ideological, and historical implications of these stars in relation to contemporary debates over changing sexual and social norms.
4.

Movies, Masculinity, and Modernity: An Ethnography of Men's Filmgoing in India » Read Now
by Steve Derne, Dan A. Chekki. 216 pgs.

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Men in India are attracted to Hindi films partly because of their attraction to depictions of "modern" lifestyles. Derne argues that films help men handle their ambivalence about modernity by rooting their sense of "Indianness" in women's acceptance of traditional food habits, clothing, and gender...
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Men in India are attracted to Hindi films partly because of their attraction to depictions of "modern" lifestyles. Derne argues that films help men handle their ambivalence about modernity by rooting their sense of "Indianness" in women's acceptance of traditional food habits, clothing, and gender subordination. The book is one of the first ethnographic studies of filmgoing and one of the first to focus on mainstream male audiences.
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5.

Myth and Masculinity in the Japanese Cinema: Towards a Political Reading of the 'Tragic Hero' » Read Now
by Isolde Standish. 242 pgs.

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This study argues that in Japanese popular cinema the 'tragic hero' narrative is an archetypal plot-structure upon which male genres, such as the war-retro and yakuza films are based. Two central questions in relation to these post-war Japanese film genres and historical consciousness are addressed:...
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This study argues that in Japanese popular cinema the 'tragic hero' narrative is an archetypal plot-structure upon which male genres, such as the war-retro and yakuza films are based. Two central questions in relation to these post-war Japanese film genres and historical consciousness are addressed: What is the relationship between history, myth and memory? And how are individual subjectivities defined in relation to the past? The book examines the role of the 'tragic hero' narrative as a figurative structure through which the Japanese people could interpret the events of World War II and defeat, offering spectators an avenue of exculpation from a foreign-imposed sense of guilt. Also considered is the fantasy world of the nagare-mono (drifter) or yakuza film. It is suggested that one of the reasons for the great popularity of these films in the 1960s and 1970s lay in their ability to offer men meanings that could help them understand the contradictions between the reality of their everyday experiences and the ideological construction of masculinity.
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6.

Search and Clear: Critical Responses to Selected Literature and Films of the Vietnam War ("Born of Two Fathers: Gender and Misunderstanding in Platoon") » Read Now
by William J. Searle. 208 pgs.

Collections: Literature, Entire Library

...literature and selected films of the Vietnam...should also fill in gaps only partially...where a young mans masculinity is broken down...had even appeared in military...
7.

Homosexuality in Cold War America: Resistance and the Crisis of Masculinity (Part 1 "Film Noir and the Political Economy of Cold War Masculinity") » Read Now
by Robert J. Corber. 246 pgs.

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Challenging widely held assumptions about postwar gay male culture and politics, Homosexuality in Cold War America examines how gay men in the 1950s resisted pressures to remain in the closet. Robert J. Corber argues that a form of gay male identity emerged in the 1950s that simultaneously drew on...
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Challenging widely held assumptions about postwar gay male culture and politics, Homosexuality in Cold War America examines how gay men in the 1950s resisted pressures to remain in the closet. Robert J. Corber argues that a form of gay male identity emerged in the 1950s that simultaneously drew on and transcended left-wing opposition to the Cold War cultural and political consensus. Combining readings of novels, plays, and films of the period with historical research into the national security state, the growth of the suburbs, and postwar consumer culture, Corber examines how gay men resisted the "organization man" model of masculinity that rose to dominance in the wake of the Second World War.
By exploring the representation of gay men in film noir, Corber suggests that even as this Hollywood genre reinforced homophobic stereotypes, it legitimized the gay male "gaze". He emphasizes how film noir's introduction of homosexual characters countered the national "project" to render gay men invisible, and marked a deep subversion of the Cold War mentality. Corber then considers the work of gay male writers Tennessee Williams, Gore Vidal, and James Baldwin, demonstrating how these authors declined to represent homosexuality as a discrete subculture and instead promoted a model of political solidarity rooted in the shared experience of oppression.
Homosexuality in Cold War America reveals that the ideological critique of the dominant culture made by gay male authors of the 1950s laid the foundation for the gay liberation movement of the following decade. It will be of interest to a wide range of readers, including students and scholars in the fields of American literature, film, and gaystudies.
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8.

Masculine/Feminine: The "New Masculinity" in Tootsie (1982), in Velvet Light Trap » Read Now
by Frank P. Tomasulo. 10 pgs.

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...constructs" masculinity and femininity in different...American films of the 1980s...Consequently, in an attempt...hegemonic masculinity. Nonetheless...blockbuster films-...
9.

More Than a Woman: Music, Masculinity and Male Spectacle in Saturday Night Fever and Staying Alive, in Velvet Light Trap » Read Now
by Jeff Ynac. 12 pgs.

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...contributing to the films representation of masculinity. Frith and McRobbie, in their essay...blaxploitation films. Here, in its construction...exaggerated masculinity, the...
10.

Masculinity and Marginality in Rob Roy and Braveheart, in Journal of Popular Film and Television » Read Now
by James R. Keller. 6 pgs.

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...Masculinity and Marginality in Rob Roy...success of films such as...However, the films narrative...traditional masculinity. Robert...family living in the...
11.

High Contrast: Race and Gender in Contemporary Hollywood Film » Read Now
by Sharon Willis. 268 pgs.

Collections: Entire Library

...in crisis. In the two film...Lethal Weapon films, white masculinitys endlessly...What these films put forward...figure of masculinity in crisis is...zones of the films...
12.

Dreaming Identities: Class, Gender, and Generation in 1980s Hollywood Movies » Read Now
by Elizabeth G. Traube. 212 pgs.

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...spectator. In The Women...misogynistic films of Alfred...alike of a masculinity based on...regenerated masculinity defines itself...of interest in Jeffordss...the Vietnam...
13.

Running Scared: Masculinity and the Representation of the Male Body (Includes discussion of masculinity in films in multiple chapters) » Read Now
by Peter Lehman. 237 pgs.

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...in those films. Linda Williams...pornography in relationship...devoted to masculinity. In addition...of phallic masculinity in our culture...spotlight. The films...
14.

Recreational Terror: Women and the Pleasures of Horror Film Viewing ("Gender Trouble" begins on p. 81) » Read Now
by Isabel Cristina Pinedo. 177 pgs.

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In Recreational Terror, Isabel Cristina Pinedo analyzes how the contemporary horror film produces recreational terror as a pleasurable encounter with violence and danger for female spectators. She challenges the conventional wisdom that violent horror films can only degrade women and incite...
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In Recreational Terror, Isabel Cristina Pinedo analyzes how the contemporary horror film produces recreational terror as a pleasurable encounter with violence and danger for female spectators. She challenges the conventional wisdom that violent horror films can only degrade women and incite violence, and contends instead that the contemporary horror film speaks to the cultural need to express rage and terror in the midst of social upheaval.
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15.

Women and Film » Read Now
by Janet Todd. 281 pgs.

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...traditional ideas of masculinity in the light of the...deposit of crises of masculinity or of a more generalize...misanthropy the films of directors such...of the stresses...