This book examines some of the canonical works of modern literature in English and German with regard to masculinity, relations between men, and patriarchy. The book identifies five leitmotifs which characterize the period between 1880 and 1930: the "double," the "other" (Narcissus and Salome), the "nationalization of Narcissus," Kampf or "male bondage," and "after patriarchy." Again and again one sees how men attempted to define themselves against what they imagined as "femininity," and further how men sought to overcome ...
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This book examines some of the canonical works of modern literature in English and German with regard to masculinity, relations between men, and patriarchy. The book identifies five leitmotifs which characterize the period between 1880 and 1930: the "double," the "other" (Narcissus and Salome), the "nationalization of Narcissus," Kampf or "male bondage," and "after patriarchy." Again and again one sees how men attempted to define themselves against what they imagined as "femininity," and further how men sought to overcome or find a socially acceptable expression for their narcissistic, homosexual, and even sadomasochist libidos. The book concludes with a review of some of the arguments of the 1920s on the subjects of patriarchy and matriarchy, and their implications for relations between men -- read against the background of the decline of patriarchal power, the advance of feminism, the arrival of modernity, the medicalization of sexuality, and the rise of nationalism and fascism.
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