Writing Masculinities: Male Narratives in Twentieth-Century Fiction

265 Pages·1999·12.941 MB·English

by  Ben Knights (auth.)

WRITING MASCULINITIES
AlsobyBen Knights
FROMREADERTO READER:Theory,Textand Practicein the
StudyGroup
THE IDEAOF THE CLERISYIN THE NINETEENTHCENTURY
THE LISTENING READER:Fictionand Poetryfor Counsellorsand
Psychotherapists
Writing Masculinities
Male Narratives in
Twentieth-Century Fiction
Ben Knights
ProfessorofEnglishandCuliuralSiudies
UlliversityofTeesside
First publishedinGreatBritain1999by
MACMILLANPRESSLTD
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Companiesand representativesthroughouttheworld
Acataloguerecordforthis bookisavailablefrom the BritishLibrary.
ISBN978-1-349-40739-2 ISBN978-0-230-38925-0(eBook)
DOI 10.1057/9780230389250
First publishedintheUnitedStatesofAmerica1999by
ST.MARTIN'SPRESS,INC.,
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ISBN978-0-312-22245-1
LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData
Knights,Ben, 1947-
Writingmasculinities:male narrativesintwentieth-century
fiction1Ben Knights.
p. cm.
Includesbibliographicalreferencesand index.
ISBN978-0-312-22245-1(cloth)
1.Englishfiction-Maleauthors-Historyandcriticism.
2.Englishfiction-20thcentury-Historyandcriticism.
3.Masculinityinliterature. 4.Narration(Rhetoric) 5.Men in
literature. I.Title.
PR888.M45K58 1999
823'.910935204I-dc21 98~54313
CIP
© Ben Knights 1999
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10 9 876 5 4 3 2 I
08 07 06 05 04 03 02 01 00 99
Contents
Preface vii
Introduction 1
1 Masculinity as Fiction 10
Telling and Being 11
The Abuses of Enehantment 20
Masculinity and 'English' 34
2 The Portrait of the Artist as a Man 49
The Ebony Tower 51
The Woman in the Reeds 57
Fathers and Gods 64
3 Fictional Forefathers: Conrad and Lawrence 73
Beckoning Shadows Dire 79
Women in Love 88
Diseourse and Knowledge 96
Men in Love 99
Art and its Interpreters 103
4 Male Narratives 107
The Great Game 109
Life Stories 112
Notes from Underground 121
Mortifying the Flesh 125
5 Male Impersonators 134
The Man who Loved Children 140
The Polities of the Family 147
The Conservationist 153
A Loeal Habitation 159
Flight between Worlds 163
v
vi Contents
6 Men in Time 167
The Fatherland of Graham Swift 169
'The Wean and That': Paternity and Domesticity 180
in The Busconductor Hines
In Search of Lost Languages 194
The Child in Time 206
Afterword 222
Notes 225
Bibliography 241
Index 253
Preface
One response to another book about masculinity might be a kind
of weariness. Is this not a subject which has been suffidently,
indeed abundantly, debated over the last fifteen or twenty years?
And in a debate in which the voices of the already audible and
privileged can be heard yet again, this time lamenting their
audibility and privilege? Yet the subject of how male identities
and plots are shaped and charged with legitimacy through story
telling seems to me important enough to risk that response. The
political and economic context - the breakdown of traditional
employment patterns, the return of atavistic nationalisms and of
fundamentalist religion, the dissolution of social democratic
institutions under the onslaught of the new free market liberalism
- a11 have the potential to reinforce fortified masculinities, and
to delegitimise innovative styles of living. Between them they
make more rather than less pressing an inquiry into the means
through which male norms are created and sustained.
My own interests and practice as a teacher lead me to an indi
rect approach. Believing in the cultural productivity of fictions
(and of the social and inte11ectual processes through which they
are read and valued), Ihave chosen to workwith literary materials.
And not necessarily with the most obvious, the kind of books to
which one might initia11y turn in order to find representations
of masculinity. It is often necessary to seek masculinities at the
edges rather than the centre of the field of vision.
Asa bookboth about masculinities and reading, this is intended
as a contributionboth to gender studies and to literary and cultural
criticism. Throughout it has been influenced by classroom practice,
and many of the discussions here were developed in their earlier
stages in dialogue with students. Iwould like to mention especia11y
those who bravely took part in the first Durham University Con
tinuing Education module 'words and the Man' and subsequently
those in the 'Masculinity in Fiction' modules at Teesside Univer
sity. I am very grateful to a11 of them. Masculinity, as Scott
McCracken has remarked, 'is not found in a reading unless you
go looking for it' (in Roberts (ed.) 1993) p. 17}. The object of this
book, as of those courses, is to go looking for it.
vii
Preface
Vlll
The process of writing has taken far longer than I originally
envisaged when I first proposed to write a book on masculinity
and fiction. Along the way I have benefited from the help and
support of many people, not all of them personally known to
me. Eve Kosovsky Sedgwick's writings, especially Between Men
have never been far from my desk. Peter Middleton's TheInward
Gaze has been a source of inspiration. I suspect his book has
influenced this one far more than the specific references suggest.
The (anonymous) Macmillan reader gave advice and encourage
ment beyond the call of duty. Closer to horne, it is a pleasure to
acknowledge dialogues over years: with David FuIler, Diana
Collecott, Tim Bond, Bill Williamson, and above all with Pam
Knights (who also supplied some of the most valuable sugges
tions and references). I wish Maleolm Sweeting was still here to
thank - for all his support, but in this instance for a conversa
tion on a walk on the Cleveland ridge. Students in the group
processes courses in the Durharn MA in Adult Education and
Learning gave me more than they may have realised. My DUET
colleagues have as always been both supportive and challeng
ing, and I think here as weIl of my fellow staff members of the
1988 DUET on Gender where some of the earlier ideas were tried
out: Iane Aaron, Marjan Bhavsar, Nano McCaughan, Andy
Medhurst, and Susan SeIlers. Tim Middleton generously showed
me his unpublished paper 'Re-reading Conrad's "Complete Man":
Constructions of Masculine Subjectivity in "Heart of Darkness"
and Lord firn'. Su Reid and my Teesside colleagues have been
unflaggingly supportive. [an Hewitt and Robert Burden - pressed
as they were with other commitments - generously read and
commented on portions in draft. Thank you all.
BEN KNIGHTS
Introduction
In this book I approach the subject of the constitution and
maintenance of masculine identities from an oblique angle. I do
not intend to review in detail current debates about masculinity.'
Instead myargument seeks to complement theoretical and historical
discussions by focusing on the subject of narrative, grounding
that discussion in the analysis of a selection of (mostly) twentieth
century novels. In this Introduction I shall give abrief account
of what the book aims to do. I shall start by indicating the
presuppositions and beliefs from which it emerges. Then I shall
sketch the shape of the book and the course its argument
will take.
My working assumption is that masculinities are not given but
achieved through a constant struggle with countervailing tend
encies. One aspect of this struggle has been a deep suspicion of
introspection, conventionally associated with dreaminess, passivity
and hence with feminisation. In challenging this norm, it would
be disingenuous to remain silent about my own beliefs, and I
might add, feelings, though I share with Peter Middletorr' a
suspicion of the prevailing platitude that what men really need
is to learn to talk about their feelings; as though emotionalliteracy
were the sole key to undoing the harm patriarchy has inflicted
upon us all. It appears to me that the reason why so many 'books
about men' are flawed is not due to any failure of intelligence or
commitment on the part of their authors, but because of the
elusiveness of the subject. This is paradoxical given the cultural
dominance of men's voices. Yet there is a sense in which mascu
linity can be so taken for granted as to be invisible. Which is not
to claim for its beneficiaries the status accruing from a hidden
history of oppression. Equally worryingis that strand in the 'rnen's
movement' that seeks to colonise the role of victim as well. Never
theless, anyone who contributes to the critical dialogue is strug
gling against powerful institutionalised forces to find a register
and an appropriate form of discourse. To speak of the Scylla of
magisterial impersonality and the Charybdis of self-indulgent
effusion would make the problem of speech in this domain evident
1