Conceptions of Postwar German Masculinity

Examines masculinity in German culture, society, and literature from 1945 to the present.

This groundbreaking work examines the long-ignored issue of masculinity and masculine identity in German culture, society, and literature, from 1945 to the present. Utilizing emerging men's studies theories, feminism, psychoanalysis, and literary studies, the book provides a resource for understanding how masculinity informs homosocial, male-female, and adult-child relations. Psychologists, literary scholars, and philosophers survey the current state of men's studies in the German academy, the representation of masculinity in postwar German literature, the psychic legacies of fascism, Turkish-German masculinities, Jewish-German masculinities, Neo-Nazi masculine identity, and the relationship between child sexual abuse and masculinity. Most significantly, the book offers tools for critical reflection on how men maintain power over women and other less powerful groups.