No Less a Man: Masculist Art in a Feminist Age

by Douglas Robinson

Robert B. Parker's detective Spenser. John Rambo, created by David Morrell and played on the silver screen by Sylvester Stallone. Bruce Springsteen. All three, Douglas Robinson claims, are central figures in a new form of popular men’s art: art that explores what it means to be a man in a feminist age. Robinson develops a three-stage transformation myth out of Joseph Campbell’s studies of hero mythology: the road of trials, on which repressive “normality” is tested and found lacking (Spenser); a symbolic death in which defensive rational ego-structures are surrendered (the Rambo of First Blood); and regeneration and return, the gradual rebirth of masculinity in a redemptive transformation (Springsteen).

334 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1994

Reviews

[Amy · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was not impressed or satisfied with this text at all. It did not draw the reader in, nor was the style of writing interesting for me. Could not finish.