“To be or not to be”—Hamlet’s timeless question of existence—resonates with a gendered undertone that continues to echo through literature and culture. This panel asks a related question: what does it mean to be (or not to be) a man, and how do literary texts help illuminate that question across genres, periods, and geographies?

This special session invites papers that analyze the construction and representations of masculinities in literature and culture. While Critical Studies on Men and Masculinities (CSMM) have offered important theoretical models—hegemonic, hybrid, queer, vulnerable, etc.—literature remains underexamined as a site for the performance and critique of gender. Similarly, literary criticism has overlooked the question of masculinity as a dynamic, often unstable category.

Topics may include, but are not limited to:

- Queer masculinities and sexuality in literary texts

- Masculinity in spiritual, religious, or mystical discourses

- Affect, emotion, and vulnerability in literary representations of men and masculinities 

- Critical approaches to hegemonic, hybrid, or vulnerable masculinities

- Intersectionality: race, class, empire, disability, and global masculinities

- Genre, form, and the performance of masculinity in literature

- The role of literary criticism in reinforcing or challenging gender norms

This session aims to engage in critical dialogue between literary studies and masculinity studies, and we encourage submissions from scholars at any career stage. Participants must be or become active SAMLA members!

Please send a 250-word abstract, paper title and short bio in a single PDF document with the name format “SAMLA_LastName” to Oscar Guerrero (oguerrero1@twu.edu) under the subject “SAMLA Proposal”.

https://samla.ballastacademic.com/Home/S/19403