Program Overview

Textual Masculinities (CMII0144)

Key Information

• Faculty: Faculty of Arts and Humanities
• Teaching department: Centre for Multidisciplinary and Intercultural Inquiry
• Credit value: 15
• Restrictions: Comp Lit and GSR MA students first priority, then open to students from REPS MA, Health Humanities. Available to Affiliate Exchange Students

Alternative Credit Options

There are no alternative credit options available for this module.

Description

This module develops an intersectional approach to novels with the aim of exploring the representations and construction of masculinities across several literary traditions, with a particular focus on texts from 20th and 21st centuries.

The first part of the module addresses the interconnectedness of the notions of authorship, whiteness, heterosexuality, and masculinity to shed light onto the overwhelming invisibility of masculinity within the Western literary canon. Examining how the understanding of the novelist is entangled with the notion of hegemonic masculinity, the module offers new perspectives on canonical authors (Flaubert, Norman Mailer, Jorge Luis Borges, Milan Kundera) and addresses how they destabilise and enforce gender roles at the same time.

The second part studies how masculinities vary across intersectional axes by examining texts that challenge the ideas of European authorship (Salman Rushdie, Philip Roth, Mario Vargas Llosa) and examine queerness (Mishima, Pedro Lemebel, Annie Proulx), Blackness (Paul Betty, Ben Okri), and diasporic masculinities (Junot Diaz).

Examining the emotional illiteracy at the heart of notions of masculinity, the module advocates for the participation of literary studies in a reflexive modernity (McGurl 2010).

Module Deliveries for 2026/27 Academic Year

• Intended teaching term: Term 1
• Postgraduate (FHEQ Level 7)

Teaching and Assessment

• Mode of study: In person
• Methods of assessment: 100% Coursework
• Mark scheme: Numeric Marks

Other Information

• Number of students on module in previous year: 5
• Module leader: Dr Stefano Rossoni

Last Updated

This module description was last updated on 10th March 2026.