Description
Module description
This module explores masculinity in the literature of the Netherlands and Flanders. The Dutch literary canon consists of many male authors. One way to address this is to include literature from other genders; another is to decentre that masculinity through adopting a critical gender studies perspective on the construction of masculinity. The latter is the path we will follow in this course: we will not look at masculinity as the unspoken norm not in need of study, but as our object of scrutiny. Making use of masculinity, gender and sexuality studies, we will look at fiction that deals with issues of power and belonging, with dynamics of humiliation and domination, and interactions between men and between men and women. The module will start from contemporary reflections on the crisis in masculinity, and will then return to the beginning of the 20th century. Our module will follow the course of the century and will analyze the construction of masculinity in relation to bourgeois culture, the after-war period, decolonization, the sixties counter-culture and sexual revolution and more contemporary representations of masculinity.
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Primary Texts:
Primary texts will be made available in English.
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Primary texts may include (fragments of):
· Louis Paul Boon, Minuet
· Willem Elsschot, Cheese
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Jef Geeraerts, Gangrene I (Black Venus)
· Daniël Robberechts, Arrival in Avignon
· Joost de Vries, The Republic
· Jan Wolkers, Turkish Delight
Module deliveries for 2024/25 academic year
Last updated
This module description was last updated on 19th August 2024.
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