American Guy Masculinity in American Law and Literature

by Levmore, Saul; Nussbaum, Martha C.

• ISBN13: 9780199331376
• ISBN10: 0199331375
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2014-09-01
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

American Guy examines American norms of masculinity and their role in the law, bringing a range of methodological and disciplinary perspectives to the intersection of American gender, legal, and literary issues. The collection opens with a set of papers investigating "American Guys" -- the heroic nonconformists and rugged individualists that populate much of American fiction. Diverse essays examine the manly men of Hemingway, Dreiser, and others, in their relation to the law, while also highlighting the underlying tensions that complicate this version of masculinity. A second set of papers examines "Outsiders" -- men on the periphery of the American Guys who proclaim a different way of being male. These essays take up counter-traditions of masculinity ranging from gay male culture to Philip Roth's portrait of the Jewish lawyer.

American Guy, a follow-up to Subversion and Sympathy, edited by Alison L. LaCroix and Martha Nussbaum, aims at reinvigorating the law-and-literature movement through original, cross-disciplinary insights. It embraces a variety of voices from both within and outside the academy, including several contributions from prominent judges. These contributions are particularly significant, not only as features unique to the field, but also for the light they throw on the federal bench. In the face of a large body of work studying judicial conduct as a function of rigid commitment to ideology, American Guy shows a side of the judiciary that is imaginatively engaged, aware of cultural trends, and reflective about the wider world and the role of the of law in it.

Author Biography

Saul Levmore is Graham Distinguished Service Professor of Law, University of Chicago Law School.

Martha C. Nussbaum is Ernst Freund Distinguished Service Professor of Law and Ethics, appointed in the Law School and Philosophy Department at the University of Chicago.

Table of Contents

Part I: American Guys

I. Richard Posner, "Manhood in Hemingway"
2. William Alsup, "On the Trail with Melville: Law and Letters in the High Sierra"
3. J. Harvie Wilkinson, "Solitary Man in American Literature and Law"
4. Douglas Baird, "American Stoic"
5. Janice Rogers Brown, "No Balm in Gilead"
6. Robin West "Gatsby and Tort"
7. A. Howard Matz, "Struggles with Manhood in Angle of Repose"
8. Michael Warner, "Manning Up"

Part II: Outsiders

9. Martha C. Nussbaum, "Jewish Men, Jewish Lawyers: Roth's 'Eli, the Fanatic' and the Question of Jewish Masculinity in American Law"
10. David Halperin, "What is Gay Male Feminity?"
11. Saul Levmore, "Snitching, Whistleblowing, and Barn Burning: Loyalty in Law, Literature, and Sports"
12. Douglas P. Woodlock, "Bullies and Martyrs: John Dos Passos and Adventures of a Young Man"
13. Richard McAdams, "Empathy and Masculinity in To Kill a Mockingbird"
14. Julie C. Suk, "Fatherhood and Crime in James Baldwin's If Beale Street Could Talk"
15. Glenda Carpio, "Glimpses of a Man: Barack Obama's Autobiographical Reflections"
16. Paxton Jamail Williams, "The Indictment of the Law and Notions of Masculinity in Ossie Davis's Purlie Victorious"