Fashioning Masculinity - Softcover

Cohen, Dr. Michele

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0415756391 ISBN 13: 9780415756396

Publisher: Routledge, 2014

Synopsis

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.

About this title

Review:

'An important contribution to an expanding literature on prescriptive materials in the eighteenth century.' - Times Literary Supplement.

'Cohen's book is a highly original and beautifully crafted piece of work. It overflows with ideas and sheds fresh light on a wide range of issues relevant to gender historians of this period...This thought-provoking book should clearly provoke further research.' - Elizabeth Foyster, Clare College, Cambridge, UK

About this edition

• Publisher: Routledge
• Publication date: 2014
• ISBN 10: 0415756391
• ISBN 13: 9780415756396
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 192