Conference: Constructions of Masculinity in British Literature from the Middle Ages to the Present, Dresden Technical University, Germany, 17-20 June 2009

Convenor: Prof. Stefan Horlacher

This international, interdisciplinary conference explores the rapidly developing field of masculinity studies specifically with a view to the British literary context. Through recourse to a wide spectrum of theoretical approaches and by providing an extensive historical over¬view of its literary constructions, the contributions are aimed at elucidating the critical potential and challenging nature of masculinity studies. While the conception, analysis and theory of male identity lies at the heart of the first section of the conference, the second section comprises readings of key literary texts and their constructions of masculinity from the Middle Ages through to the present.

Paper topics include:
New Perspectives in Masculinity Studies ● Masculinity and the Law ● Masculinity and Queer Studies ● Robin, Gamelyn and Medieval Masculine Escapism ● Masculinities in Early Modern England ● Images of Masculinity in Texts of Early Modern Women ● Masculinities in Daniel Defoe's Novels ● Sentimental Masculinity ● The Weaker Sex: Male Illness in Nineteenth-Century British Literature ● Concepts of Masculinity in Victorian Crime, Detective and Gothic Fiction ● Masculinities and the Great War ● The Rise of the Angry Young Man ● Gay Men and Romance in Novels by E. M. Forster, Tom Wakefield and Alan Hollinghurst ● 'Filiarchy' and the Male Principle in the Work of Ian McEwan

Speakers confirmed include
Rainer Emig ● Berthold Schoene ● Laurenz Volkmann ● Andrew James Johnston ● Gabriele Rippl ● Fatemeh Hosseini ● Ralf Schneider ● Susanne Scholz ● Christoph Houswitschka ● Silvia Mergenthal ● Sebastian Müller ● Christiane Koch ● Sigrun Meinig ● Claudia Lainka ● Thomas Kühn

Sponsors: Fritz Thyssen Stiftung für Wissenschaftsförderung; TU Dresden