Fashioning masculinity : national identity and language in the eighteenth century
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Bibliographic Information
Fashioning masculinity : national identity and language in the eighteenth century
Routledge, 2014
- : pbk
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Note
Originally published: 1996
"First issued in paperback 2014"--T.p. verso
Includes bibliographical references (p. 151-170) and index
Description and Table of Contents
Description
The fashioning of English gentlemen in the eighteenth century was modelled on French practices of sociability and conversation. Michele Cohen shows how at the same time, the English constructed their cultural relations with the French as relations of seduction and desire. She argues that this produced anxiety on the part of the English over the effect of French practices on English masculinity and the virtue of English women.
By the end of the century, representing the French as an effeminate other was integral to the forging of English, masculine national identity. Michele Cohen examines the derogation of women and the French which accompanied the emergent 'masculine' English identity. While taciturnity became emblematic of the English gentleman's depth of mind and masculinity, sprightly conversation was seen as representing the shallow and inferior intellect of English women and the French of both sexes.
Michele Cohen also demonstrates how visible evidence of girls' verbal and language learning skills served only to construe the female mind as inferior. She argues that this perception still has currency today.
Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION 1 CONVERSATION AND THE CONSTRUCTION OF THE HONNETE HOMME IN SEVENTEENTH-CENTURY FRANCE 2 THE ENGLISH GENTLEMAN AND HIS TONGUE 3 POLITENESS 4 THE GRAND TOUR OF THE ENGLISH GENTLEMAN 5 THE ACCOMPLISHMENT OF THE EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY LADY 6 THE SEXED MIND 7 TONGUES, MASCULINITY AND NATIONAL CHARACTER
by "Nielsen BookData"
