Presents a ground-breaking exploration of the imagining of masculinities in adventure stories, considering such great hero-figures as T.E. Lawrence and Henry Havelock. It traces a history from nineteenth century imperialism to the present
Autorentext
Graham Dawson
Zusammenfassung
Soldier Heroes explores the imagining of masculinities within adventure stories. Drawing on literary theory, cultural materialism and Kleinian psychoanalysis, it analyses modern British adventure heroes as historical forms of masculinity originating in the era of nineteenth-century popular imperialism, traces their subsequent transformations and examines the way these identities are internalized and lived by men and boys.
Inhalt
Introduction: Soldier Heroes, Masculinity and British National Identity Part I: Soldier Heroes, Adventure and the historical IMagining of Masculinities 1. Soldier Heroes and the Narrative Imagining of masculinities 2. Masculinity, Phantasy and History 3. The Adventure Quest and Its Cultural Imaginaries Part II: The hero-Making and Hagiography of havelock of Lucknow: Imperialism and Military Adventure in the Nineteeth Century 4. The Imagining of a hero: Sir Henry Havelock, the Indian Rebellion and the News 5. Commemorating the Exemplary Life: the Havelock Hagiography Part III: The Public and Private Lives of T.E. Lawrence: The Imperial Adventure in the Modern World 6. The Blond Bedouin: Lawrence of Arabia and Imperial Adventure in the Modern World 7. The Public and Private Lives of T.E. Lawrence: The Adventure hero and modernist Masculinity 8. Public Pathologies: T.E. Lawrence, Psychological Biography and the Cultural Politics of Imperial Decline Part IV: Soldier Heroes and the Imagining of Boyhood Masculinity 9. Playing at War: Boyhood Phantasies and the Pleasure-Culture of War 10. Self -Imagining: Boyhood Masculinity, Social Recognition and the Adventure Hero Afterword: Soldier heroes and Cultural Politics of Reparation Notes