Engendering Men

Book excerpt: Over the past several years, the question of men’s relation to feminism has become a fiercely and sometimes bitterly debated subject. Engendering Mendemonstrates the creative impact that feminist modes of inquiry have already had on a new generation of male critics. In the wake of feminism, many men have found it imperative to begin the task of retheorizing the male position in our culture. This collection of new essays brings together seventeen male critics whose work – on poetry, fiction, the Broadway stage, film and television, and broader cultural and psychoanalytic texts – is opening up new avenues in criticism, as well as in gender and feminist theory.