Description

Book Synopsis

Perverse Feelings: Poe and American Masculinity examines white masculinity in Poe's fiction and the culture it represents. Poe's men are tormented by chronic illness, deviant attachments, and ugly emotions. As it analyzes these afflictions, this book illuminates the pathologies of American masculinity that emerged in a terrible history of imperialism, capitalism, racism, misogyny, and homophobia. One of its central contentions is that we can better understand a past and present American masculinity through a reckoning with its "perverse feelings." More pointedly, this book asks: What does masculinity feel? What does white American masculinity feel in the first decades of nation formation? What does it feel in the crucible of its revolution, its slave system, its democracy, its nascent capitalism, and its pursuit of happiness? What feelings besiege and beleaguer Poe's men? And what can they teach us about the antagonisms of contemporary white American masculinity?



Table of Contents

Introduction: Perverse Feelings

Chapter 1: Hate

Chapter 2: Melancholia

Chapter 3: Disgust

Chapter 4: Resentment

Chapter 5: Revenge

Conclusion: Ambivalence

Perverse Feelings: Poe and American Masculinity

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    A Hardback by Suzanne Ashworth

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      Book details

      Publisher Lexington Books
      Published 23 September 2022
      ISBN-13 9781793626523
      978-1793626523
      ISBN-10 1793626529

      Description

      Book Synopsis

      Perverse Feelings: Poe and American Masculinity examines white masculinity in Poe's fiction and the culture it represents. Poe's men are tormented by chronic illness, deviant attachments, and ugly emotions. As it analyzes these afflictions, this book illuminates the pathologies of American masculinity that emerged in a terrible history of imperialism, capitalism, racism, misogyny, and homophobia. One of its central contentions is that we can better understand a past and present American masculinity through a reckoning with its "perverse feelings." More pointedly, this book asks: What does masculinity feel? What does white American masculinity feel in the first decades of nation formation? What does it feel in the crucible of its revolution, its slave system, its democracy, its nascent capitalism, and its pursuit of happiness? What feelings besiege and beleaguer Poe's men? And what can they teach us about the antagonisms of contemporary white American masculinity?



      Table of Contents

      Introduction: Perverse Feelings

      Chapter 1: Hate

      Chapter 2: Melancholia

      Chapter 3: Disgust

      Chapter 4: Resentment

      Chapter 5: Revenge

      Conclusion: Ambivalence

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