Masculinity as a Discursive Construct. German Literary Analyses of Masculinity in the 21st Century

Abstract

The first studies which introduced the category of masculinity into German literary science in the context of contemporary interdisciplinary gender research, perceiving it as a social and cultural construct, were published shortly after the turn of the century. The paper lays out the basic theoretical approaches to masculinity in literary texts presented in relevant German literary works of the second decade of the 21st century. In contemporary literary analyses, it is not only a question of revealing masculine power structures in literary texts, but also of criticising one-sided and stereotypical constructs of male identity. Attention is focused on the combination of masculinity and emotionality, but also on the relationship between masculinity and fatherhood or on the literary reflections of the changes in the conventional status of man as a breadwinner, public actor and creative intellectual. Literary masculinities are understood as products of literary narratives.