Pinks, Pansies, and Punks: The Rhetoric of Masculinity in American Literary Culture

Pinks, Pansies, and Punks charts the construction of masculinity within American literary culture from the 1930s to the 1970s.

Penner documents the emergence of macho criticism and explores how debates about hard and soft masculinity influenced the class struggles of the 1930s, anti-communism in the 1940s and 1950s, and the clash between the Old Left and the New Left in the 1960s.

By extending literary culture to include not just novels, plays, and poetry, but diaries, journals, manifestos, screenplays, and essays on psychology and sociology, Penner unveils the multiplicity of gender attitudes that emerge in each of the decades he addresses.

Author: James Penner
Publisher: Indiana University Press
Published: 12/23/2010
Pages: 318
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.83lbs
Size: 8.40h x 5.60w x 0.90d
ISBN: 9780253222510

Review Citation(s):
Choice 07/01/2011

About the Author

James Penner is an Assistant Professor of English at the University of Puerto Rico.