Hegemony and Trauma. Literature after 1945 in the Face of the Transformations of Masculinity Cover Image

Hegemonia i trauma. Literatura po 1945 roku wobec przemian męskości
Hegemony and Trauma. Literature after 1945 in the Face of the Transformations of Masculinity

Author(s): Wojciech Śmieja
Subject(s): Politics / Political Sciences, Anthropology, Social Sciences, Civil Society, Sociology
Published by: Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Śląskiego
Keywords: masculinity; Polish People’s Republic (PRL); hegemony; trauma

Summary/Abstract: The article is an attempt at providing description of the functioning and transformations of masculinity in culture, and above all in literature after 1945. While employing theoretical languages of R.W. Connell and K. Silverman, well‑rooted in the tradition of masculinity studies, the author strives to reconstruct its dynamics, which is shaped by tension between two categories: hegemony (as the required position of masculinity ensured by military experience) and trauma (as a real and long‑term result of this experience). The tension between the cultural discipline of hegemony and the increasing awareness of trauma shapes other oppositions, which makes it possible to model the historical course of the transformations of masculinity and leads to the creation of postmodern, demilitarized and “depatriarchalised” male habitus. One of their distinguishing features is reevaluation of the previously neglected spheres of male experience, such as fatherhood.

  • Issue Year: 2016
  • Issue No: 1+2 (8)
  • Page Range: 99-146
  • Page Count: 48
  • Language: Polish