"Female Novelists Constructing Masculinities"

Feminist literary scholars have more or less exclusively focused on representations of femininity in their analyses of the novels of women writers. Female novelists participating in discourses of and about sex and gender, however, are (like their male colleagues) more often than not just as interested in the "other sex/gender" as in their own. The fact that many female novelists invest as much narrative energy in constructing "ideal" or "undesirable" male identities as they do in envisioning female subject positions has received very little scholarly attention to date. The way female novelists construct masculinities offers scholars an opportunity to consider the implications of genre construction, gender roles, and notions of heteronormativity, and as such, this aspect of women's participation in gendered discourses deserves in-depth theorization and examination.

As a result, we call for proposals or articles for a volume tentatively titled "Women Constructing Men" that considers how female novelists negotiate and fashion masculinities. Possible areas of inquiry include, but are not limited to: How and why do female novelists construct "ideal" and/or "undesirable" masculinities and what are the narrative, social, gender, and genre consequences of their particular constructions? What are the implications of female-authored representations of masculinity on the construction of heteronormativity, or, vice versa, (how) do notions of heteronormativity prestructure female novelists' negotiations of masculinity? What implications arise from women using a masculine perspective in their novels: are they merely "appropriating" the power of the patriarchy, or is there more at stake? How might consideration of the ways in which female novelists construct masculinities change scholarly perceptions of previously well-analyzed novels?

Proposals or articles that span the centuries and the continents are welcome, but should focus on female novelists. Inquiries, articles, or two page proposals, and a short C.V., should be submitted by 1 August, 2006:

Dr. Sarah S. G. Frantz: sfrantz_at_uncfsu.edu
Dr. Katharina Rennhak: katharina.rennhak_at_anglistik.uni-muenchen.de

Authors whose abstracts are selected will be asked to submit full papers (by 1 March, 2007); ultimate determination of inclusion in the volume will be based on the final paper.

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Received on Wed Mar 15 2006 - 08:29:01 EST