TITLE:

GENDER, RACE AND CLASS: ETHNIC MASCULINITIES IN CONTEMPORARY AMERICAN LITERATURE WRITTEN BY WOMEN (II) (mesa redonda)

Participants:

Bárbara Ozieblo (Chair)* - Marta Bosch** - Rodrigo Andrés** - Bill Phillips**

Institution:

*Universidad de Málaga - **Universitat de Barcelona

E-mail:

 ozieblo@uma.es

Since the 1980s, the study of masculinity -namely, the cultural prescriptions that each society attaches to one's biological sex at a particular time (MacIntosh)- has increasingly become an academic object of analysis. Along with feminist and gay studies, masculinity studies has thus explored the meanings of "being a man" from multiple and innovative methodological and disciplinary perspectives. As more and more work is being done in the name of masculinity studies, increasing attention is being paid to the intersections between different factors such as masculinity, race, and class. In line with the latest trends of masculinity studies, then, the members of the research project "Construyendo nuevas masculinidades"  (Instituto de la Mujer, Exp. Nº 62/03), as a result of their three-year research work, propose two round tables on the analysis of how gender, race and class combine in the construction of ethnic masculinities. While most studies of literary masculinities have focused on the analysis of male-authored texts, the tables that we propose will explore a plurality of representations of ethnic men from women whose work challenges hegemonic patriarchal values.

Round Table II

Rodrigo Andrés will explore how in the works of Jewish American writers Tillie Olsen (1912-) and Grace Paley (1922-) male characters are presented as co-victims of an oppressive class system, rather than as patriarchal victimizers. Both writers –celebrated icons of feminist literature in the United States- pay homage to women of the working classes and also dignify their men as potential partners at the level of both personal and political commitments.

Marta Bosch will explore the extent to which the writings of contemporary Arab-American women authors such as Diana Abu-Jaber, Elmaz Abinander, Eden Adnan, Mona Simpson, or Naomi Shihab Nye reproduce or depart from traditional representations of Arab masculinity. Taking into account their gender, class, and ethnicity, Bosch’s contribution will examine the ways in which these writers articulate representations of Western masculinity alongside their Arab cultural heritage and the stereotypes of Arab men circulating in Western societies. As will be argued, such stereotypes are characterized by ambivalence, showing traits of effeminacy (related to colonialism and Orientalism) in contrast with features of hypermasculinity (related to violence and patriarchy).

Bill Phillips will analyze how the traditional fictional American detective powerfully reinforced an already existing model of white, middle class, heterosexual masculinity. Nevertheless, alternative models, such as Joseph Hansen’s 1970 gay detective novel Fadeout, Jame Lee Burke’s Dave Robicheaux series or Paula L. Wood’s more recent Charlotte Justice novels have challenged the gender, race and class bias associated with the genre.