Mexican masculinities
By: Robert McKee Irwin.
Series: Cultural studies of the Americas ;; v. 11
Publisher: University of Minnesota Press
Published: 2003
Place of publication: Minneapolis
Language: eng
Number of pages: 282
Subjects: Mexican literature -- 20th century -- History and criticism.; Mexican literature -- 19th century -- History and criticism.; Masculinity in literature.; National characteristics, Mexican, in literature.; Homosexuality in literature.
Description: The rhetoric of "Mexicanness" makes constant use of images of masculinity, though it does so in shifting and often contradictory ways. Robert McKee Irwin's work follows these shifts from the male homosocial bonding that was central to notions of national integration in the nineteenth century, to questioning of gender norms stirred by science and scandals at the turn of the century, to the virulent reaction against gender chaos after the Mexican revolution, to the association of Mexicanness with machismo and homophobia in the literature of the 1940s and 1950s -- even as male homosexuality was established as an integral part of national culture. As the first historical study of how masculinity and, particularly, homosexuality were understood in Mexico in the national era, this book not only provides "queer readings" of major canonical texts of the period but also uncovers a variety of unknown texts from queer Mexican history. Book jacket.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. 253-271) and index.
Table of contents: title: Introduction : the hidden vices of los hijos de la chingada; title: Early paradoxes of masculinity and male homosocial bonding : the nineteenth century; title: Criminal male sexuality : the turn of the century; title: Virile literature and effeminate literature : the 1920s and 1930s; title: Homosexual panic : the 1940s and 1950s; title: Conclusion : the trials and tribulations of los hijos de la chingada.