New Masculinities in Contemporary German Literature

‘Frauke Matthes probes themes of difference, desire and cultural (dis-)location in contemporary German fiction, illuminating the ambivalent and varied realities of masculinity in compelling readings of texts by five prominent male authors. With its welcome emphasis on writers who are culturally ‘other’ to a hegemonic German mainstream, the study diversifies and deepens critical perspectives on lived and imagined masculinities within the wider landscape of global neoliberal ecocidal capitalism.’--Caitríona Ní Dhúill, Professor of German, University College Cork, Ireland The complex nexus between masculinity and national identity has long troubled, but also fascinated the German cultural imagination. This has become apparent again since the fall of the Iron Curtain and the turn of the millennium when transnational developments have noticeably shaped Germany’s self-perception as a nation. This book examines the social and political impact of transnationalism with reference to current discourses of masculinity in novels by five contemporary male German-language authors. Specifically, it analyses how conceptions of the masculine interact with those of nationality, ethnicity, and otherness in the selected texts and assesses the new masculinities that result from those interactions. Exploring how local discourses of masculinity become part of transnational contexts in contemporary writing, the book moves a consideration of masculinities from a "native" into a transnational sphere. Frauke Matthes is Senior Lecturer in German at the University of Edinburgh, UK. She is the author and co-editor of several books and articles on contemporary German-language writing, masculinities in literature, and transnational and world literature.