Errancies of Desire

Errancies of Desire Monstrous Masculinities Across the Atlantic - Television and Popular Culture

Paperback (15 Nov 2022)

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Publisher's Synopsis

Social commentators, psychologists, and journalists all point to the idea that in the new millennium, traditional masculinity is in crisis. In contemporary film and literature, this predicament is often portrayed as a problem of desire-particularly, heterosexual desire. Male libido, it appears, is especially vicious when it is misguided. Yet the genesis of this problem is not consistently diagnosed. While some texts may situate it in the unbridled expression of human sexuality and its associated discourses, others contend it is the perverse result of popular constructions of sex and gender.

Addressing this conundrum, Errancies of Desire focuses on the intersections of phallocratic violence and masculine identity in contemporary works of fiction across three subcontinents: North America, Western Europe, and sub-Saharan Africa. In doing so, Messier details the ways in which male desire is predicated on mediated forms of predatory and misogynistic sexuality that cross national and cultural divides. Employing a comparative methodology, he interrogates common perceptions of national differences and masculine identities grounded in historical specificity. Errancies of Desire effectively argues that when associated symptoms of violent and sexist behavior are institutionalized and misguidedly construed as a masculine norm, all men can become monsters.

Book information

ISBN: 9780815637875
Publisher: Syracuse University Press
Imprint: Syracuse University Press
Pub date:
DEWEY: 809.304
DEWEY edition: 23
Language: English
Number of pages: 208
Weight: 316g
Height: 151mm
Width: 229mm
Spine width: 19mm