The Changing Fictions of Masculinity

Feminist Scholarship, inspired and fueled by the women's movement, produced the insight that made this book possible: what not so long ago was called the 'human' experience, whether analyzed by history, literature, psychology or whatever, was actually the 'male' experience, one that ignored women and took men for the norm. From this feminist perspective one can dismiss male fiction that purports to be the supremely human story. At the same time, one can show the tyranny of masculine rule and the apparent need men have had to exercise such tyranny. This book will not dispute those readings, nor does it seek to repeat them. Instead, it will ask, what does a work like Beowulf tell about men?