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Mexican Masculinities Robert McKee Irwin |
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$60.00 Cloth |
A fascinating examination of masculinity in nineteenth- and twentieth-century Mexico. The first of its kind and a powerful challenge to customary views of gender and sexuality in the life and literature of Mexico, this book traces literary representations of masculinity in Mexico from independence in 1810 to the 1960s, and shows how these intersect with the constructions of nation and nationality. 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 most major canonical texts of the period in question, but also uncovers a variety of unknown texts from queer Mexican history, including the 1906 novel Los 41, which reenacts the scandal of a turn-of-the-century transvestite ball that launched modern discussion of homosexuality in Mexico. It is a radical undermining of the simple hetero/homosexual and masculine/feminine oppositions that have for so long informed views of the country's national character. “Analytically sophisticated and ambitious in the range of topics it treats, this book offers an intriguing study of both famous and lesser-known texts. Its arguments regarding gender representation and nation are well worth consideration by historians of society, culture, and lo mexicano.” —Hispanic American Historical Review “Mexican Masculinities is a history of the representation of masculinities and male sexualities in fictional Mexican literature. Irwin provides excellent summaries of Mexican literature, and he moves the book along nicely from story to story by providing background and author information as needed to give complete background. Irwin suggests that there is a certain homoeroticism that is specifically Mexican that comes to represent Mexican masculinity.” —Men and Masculinities “This is a refreshing and important addition to studies of gender and sexuality in Mexico and provides a challenge to historians and others to make more explicit connections among homosociality, homosexuality, and homophobia in national identity research.” —American Historical Review Robert McKee Irwin is assistant professor and director of undergraduate studies in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese at Tulane University. He is author of Bandits, Captives, Heroines, and Saints: Cultural Icons of Mexico's Northwest Borderlands. 296 pages | 1 halftone | 5 7/8 x 9 | 2003 |
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$20.00 Paper