Aging Masculinities in Contemporary U.S. Fiction

'Are older men interesting? This volume insists, and demonstrates, that they have been central figures for many intriguing writers of fiction.'

-Margaret Morganroth Gullette, Women's Studies Research Center, Brandeis University, USA

'Revisiting contemporary US fiction by focusing on cultural representations of aging masculinities not only encourages a reassessment of such texts in terms of dominant cultural beliefs that challenges prevailing perspectives on gender and age, but more importantly offers insights into how the form influences our perceptions by either supporting or subverting preconceived notions of masculinity.' -Roberta Maierhofer, Center for Inter-American Studies, University of Graz, Austria

'A much-needed and impressive contribution to the fields of age studies and gender studies, both of which have overlooked the study of men and masculinity. Focusing on representations of aging and old men in U.S. fiction, contributors produce a rich array of images and interpretations that challenge the dominant masculinity script and redress the cultural invisibility of older men.'

-Thomas R. Cole, McGovern Chair in Medical Humanities and Director of the McGovern Center for Humanities and Ethics, University of Texas, USA

This book focuses on representations of aging masculinities in contemporary U.S. fiction, including shifting perceptions of physical and sexual prowess, depression, and loss, but also greater wisdom and confidence, legacy, as well as new affective patterns. The collection also incorporates factors such as race, sexuality and religion. The volume includes studies, amongst others, on Philip Roth, Paul Auster, Toni Morrison, Ernest Gaines, and Edmund White. Ultimately, this study proves that men's aging experiences as described in contemporary U.S. literature and culture are as complex and varied as those of their female counterparts.

JosepM. Armengol is Professor of U.S. Literature and Gender Studies at Universidad de Castilla-La Mancha, Spain. He is the author of Masculinities in Black and White: Manliness and Whiteness in (African) American Literature (2014), among others, and is Director of the project 'No Country for Old Men? Representations of Masculinity and Aging in Contemporary U.S. Fiction'.

Autorentext

Josep M. Armengol is Professor of U.S. Literature and Gender Studies at Universidad de Castilla-La Mancha, Spain. He is the author of Masculinities in Black and White: Manliness and Whiteness in (African) American Literature (2014), among others, and is Director of the project 'No Country for Old Men? Representations of Masculinity and Aging in Contemporary U.S. Fiction'.

Zusammenfassung
This book focuses on representations of aging masculinities in contemporary U.S. fiction, including shifting perceptions of physical and sexual prowess, depression, and loss, but also greater wisdom and confidence, legacy, as well as new affective patterns. The collection also incorporates factors such as race, sexuality and religion. The volume includes studies, amongst others, on Philip Roth, Paul Auster, Toni Morrison, Ernest Gaines, and Edmund White. Ultimately, this study proves that men's aging experiences as described in contemporary U.S. literature and culture are as complex and varied as those of their female counterparts.

Inhalt

Chapter 1. Josep M. Armengol: No Country for Old Men? An Introduction.- Part I. GENDERING AGE.- Chapter 2. Juan González-Echeverría: Harvest Time for John Updike's Rabbit: Sex Dies Harder than Gender.- Chapter 3. Sarah Hardy: Geographies of Aging in Jhumpa Lahiri's The Third and Final Continent and Jeffrey Eugenides' Middlesex.- Chapter 4. Teresa Requena: Literary Representations of Aging Masculinities: Bodies and Privilege.- Part II. MEN'S AGING IN POPULAR FICTION.- Chapter 5. M. Isabel Santaulària I Capdevila: You are all too old to do anything but get yourselves killed: Age and Masculinity in Stephen King's It, Dreamcatcher and Doctor Sleep.- Chapter 6. Ángel Mateos-Aparicio: ''To Oldie Go: From James T. Kirk and Jean-Luc Picard to Samuel Lord and the Reconstruction of the Aging Male Body in the Final Frontier.- Part III. OLDER MEN IN AUTOBIOGRAPHY AND MEMOIR.- Chapter 7. Esther Zaplana: Self-Representation 'Between Two': Ageing Males, and the 'Otherness within' in Philip Roth's Patrimony.- Chapter 8. Leonor Acosta-Bustamante: Reconstructing the (Masculine) Self from Old Age: Memories of the Aching Male Body in Paul Auster's Winter Journal.- Part IV. AGING BEYOND WHITENESS.- Chapter 9. Mar Gallego: Black Masculinities and Aging in Toni Morrison's Novels.- Chapter 10. Marta Bosch-Vilarrubias: Aging Men in Contemporary Arab American Literature Written by Women.- Part V. QUEERING AGE.- Chapter 11. Josep M. Armengol: Sex and Text: Queering Older Men's Sexuality in Contemporary U.S. Fiction.- Chapter 12. Ignacio Ramos-Gay & Claudia Alonso-Recarte: On Long-lasting 'Humanimal' Companionships: Gayness, Aging and Disease in Steven Rowley's Lily and the Octopus