Ecomasculinities

While there exist numerous studies on ecocriticism and ecofeminism, much less has been written about ecomasculinities. This volume contributes to filling this gap by examining models of fictional ecomasculinity in and through contemporary U.S. literature and cinema. Our study examines ecomasculinities as practices of masculinity which are deeply conservationist and can embrace non-masculine traits. In this line of thought, a main goal of the volume is to interrogate the potential of ecomasculinities to elicit in men a desire to become engage in other practices of masculinity that are counter-hegemonic and have as main goal to achieve equality on different strata of society. Bridging the gap between the Social Sciences and the Humanities, the book interrogates intersections between ecomasculinities and masculinities beyond capitalism, ecomasculinities and aging, and ecomasculinities and queerness, among others.

Introduction: Ecomasculinities: Negotiating Male Gender Identity in U.S. Fiction

Stefan L. Brandt & Rubén Cenamor

Part I: The Birth of Literary Ecomasculinities

1. The Wild Ones: Ecomasculinities in the American Literary Imagination

Stefan L. Brandt

2. Men in Nature: a critical analysis of the Mythopoetic Men’s Movement

Paul M. Pulé and Martin Hultman

3. Eco-men from the Outer Space? Mars and Utopian Masculinities in Fin de Siècle Literature

Alessandra Calanchi

Part II: Ecomasculinities in American Literature from 1950s to 1990s

4. A New Man Emerges: Masculinities Beyond Capitalism and the Eco-Man in 1950s’ America

Rubén Cenamor

5. Gender Blending and Psychic Phenomena: Forming Ecomasculinities in Gravity’s Rainbow

Victoria Addis

6. Cormac McCarthy’s Eco-men: the loss of the natural world in the twentieth century American landscape

Layla Hendow

7. Aging Men in Nature: Jane Smiley’s Ecocritical Exploration of Masculinities Across the Life Course in A Thousand Acres

Teresa Requena

Part III: The Eco-Man in Contemporary Cinema, TV and Media

8. The Film Star as Eco-warrior: Harrison Ford Saves the Planet (and this Time It is for Real)

Virginia Luzón

9. True Detective: Not Flourishing yet, but Maybe Germinating.

Bill Phillips

10. Polar Bears and Electric Plugs: Green Shopping and Twenty-First Century Queer American Masculinity

Evangeline M. Heiliger

About the Contributors