Scenes of Masochism and Male Homosocial Desire from Tobias Wolff’s In Pharaoh’s Army and Pat Barker’s Regeneration
Abstract
This article, “Scenes
of Masochism and Male Homosocial Desire from Tobias Wolff’s In Pharaoh’s Army and
Pat Barker’s Regeneration,”
seeks to develop a historically contingent reading of the term “masculinity” as
it is elaborated in relation to sexuality and discipline. More specifically, I
am interested in looking at the layers of discursive meanings that construct or
clothe the body as “masculine.” My aim is not to undress this body of its
prosthetic signifiers, but address this body, or to locate it in relation to
its social surroundings, and disciplinary institutions. By examining a series
of scenes, passages and arguments from Tobias Wolff’s In Pharaoh’s Army and Pat Barker’s Regeneration, I will revise Gilles Deleuze’s notion of “masochism”
to highlight the political stakes in
formulating a male homosocial masochistic scene.
Keywords
References
- Barker, Pat. Regeneration. New York: Plume, 1993.
- Deleuze, Gilles. Masochism: Coldness and Cruelty. New York: Zone Books, 1991.
- Foucault, Michel. The History of Sexuality, Volume I. New York: Vintage Books, 1978.
- Sedgwick, Eve. Between Men: English Literature and Male Homosocial Desire.New York: Columbia University Press. 1985.
- Wolff, Tobias. In Pharaoh’s Army: Memories of the Lost War. New York: Vintage, 1994.
- Zizek, Slavoj. The Sublime Object of Ideology. New York: Verso, 1989.
Details
Primary Language
English
Subjects
-
Journal Section
Research Article
Authors
Justin Omar Johnston
*
This is me
United States
Publication Date
February 15, 2017
Submission Date
September 4, 2016
Acceptance Date
January 15, 2017
Published in Issue
Year 2017 Number: 7