is masculinity an archetype in literature?
every book is/has a hero with a mark to the masculine stature.
if so does this 'masculine man' really exist?
masculinity and literature
is masculinity an archetype in literature?
every book is/has a hero with a mark to the masculine stature.
if so does this 'masculine man' really exist?
Last edited by cacian; 05-26-2016 at 05:50 AM.
it may never try
but when it does it sigh
it is just that
good
it fly
Masculinity is part of a masculine archetype in literature. Different authors have shown that characteristic in different ways. Like femininity masculinity encompasses a broad spectrum of characteristics. And yes, men are masculine, but whether a perfect example of the archetype exists is an open question, because there is no single model. Consider just the male actors in the movie "Casablanca" and you will see several masculine men, but no two are the same.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Masculinity
https://www.questia.com/library/lite...-in-literature
http://explore.tandfonline.com/page/...-in-literature
https://siuewmst.wordpress.com/2012/...feminist-care/
If you were hoping that someone would claim to be the ideal, then think of me.
I think here are two concepts at play: the concept of hero/ heroine which may apply to women as well as to men and the concept of masculinity itself.
There are, of course, many forms of analizing the hero/heroine. A theory I find interesting is the one of the North American critic Nortroph Frye. It basically shows how the ancient demi-god representation of the hero has lost its greatness by stages, until arriving at the infra hero stage(Kafka, for example), who deems himself less than the common man. I only don't know where to place the post modern hero in this classification.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anatomy_of_Criticism
The changes of the conception of gender also reflect themselves in literature. I believe that today the concepts of masculinity and feminility include so many variants that it is difficult and I think also pointless to answer the question what is a "masculine man" or a "feminine woman".
Last edited by Danik 2016; 05-26-2016 at 12:18 PM.
"I seemed to have sensed also from an early age that some of my experiences as a reader would change me more as a person than would many an event in the world where I sat and read. "
Gerald Murnane, Tamarisk Row
Do you have any examples of a masculine archetype? The first author that came to mind was Ernest Hemingway. He wrote a short story called Out of Season. In a strange way, the main character, who is the town drunkard, is a masculine archetype. Do you have any examples of authors who have created masculine main characters?
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