Crisis? What Crisis? Rethinking Masculinity Studies in a Western Context: New Perspectives and Tendencies

Research output: Contribution to book/Conference proceedings/Anthology/ReportChapter in book/Anthology/ReportContributedpeer-review

Abstract

“Crisis? What Crisis? Rethinking Masculinity Studies in a Western Context” explores the relation between African and non-African forms of knowledge about masculinity and offers a critical survey of where masculinity studies are, after roughly fifty years since their inception. It examines the concept of masculinity itself and interrogates the almost mythological notion of a masculinity in perpetual crisis in Western societies. Drawing on sociological, anthropological and psychoanalytical approaches as well as on deconstructive, narratological, intersectional, comparative and other perspectives, the chapter discusses how these frameworks contribute to a better understanding of masculinity, i.e. what they allow us to see but also what they obscure. The final section of the chapter addresses potential new directions for masculinity studies—and perhaps for masculinities themselves—and offers a concise survey of recent trends and emerging debates.

Details

Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationGender and Sexuality in Transdisciplinary African Humanities
EditorsWumi Raji
PublisherPalgrave Macmillan Cham
Pages171 - 192
ISBN (electronic)978-3-032-18081-0
ISBN (print)978-3-032-18080-3
Publication statusPublished - 25 May 2026
Peer-reviewedYes