Marked Men
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Overview
White men still hold most of the political and economic cards in the United States; yet stories about wounded and traumatized men dominate popular culture. Why are white men jumping on the victim bandwagon? Examining novels by Philip Roth, John Updike, James Dickey, John Irving, and Pat Conroy and such films as Deliverance, Misery, and Dead Poets Society—as well as other writings, including The Closing of the American Mind—Sally Robinson argues that white men are tempted by the possibilities of pain and the surprisingly pleasurable tensions that come from living in crisis.Editorials
Booknews
Analyzes reconstructions of white masculinity within mainstream America during the 1960s through 1980s. Material is organized around political, academic, cultural, emotional, and sexual sites of crisis to chart a movement from the political to the personal which characterized the period. Locates the birth of the crisis in white masculinity in the "discovery" of Middle America following the 1968 election of Richard Nixon, then examines the work of authors including John Updike, Philip Roth, John Irving, and Stephen King. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)The Women's Review of Books -
Marked Men: White Masculinity in Crisis is an intelligent, wide-ranging, clearly argued and thoroughly femnist book about the shifting meanings of dominant masculinity in American culture....Robinson makes appropriate but not heavy-handed use of other theorists and literary critics, often developing their insights in original directions....Robinson is an astute critic of cultural images.
San Francisco Sunday Examiner & Chronicle Book Review
White men have it all, except the hardship of having to live in a world dominated by white men. Sally Robinson argues, with shocking originality... that they now want that too: Through victimization, we find the tensions that make us most alive.
The Women's Review of Books
Marked Men: White Masculinity in Crisis is an intelligent, wide-ranging, clearly argued and thoroughly femnist book about the shifting meanings of dominant masculinity in American culture....Robinson makes appropriate but not heavy-handed use of other theorists and literary critics, often developing their insights in original directions....Robinson is an astute critic of cultural images.— Judith Kegan Gardiner
San Francisco Sunday Examiner & Chronicle Book Review
White men have it all, except the hardship of having to live in a world dominated by white men. Sally Robinson argues, with shocking originality... that they now want that too: Through victimization, we find the tensions that make us most alive.— Jonathon Keats