Masculinities in Post-Millennial Popular Romance

This book follows a close textual analysis approach and offers a gender reading of post-millennial popular romance heroes. It suggests that to an extent the male protagonists of these narratives could be described as a platform onto which different forms of dominant masculinity are displayed and coexist without losing their hegemonic status

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This book focuses on the projection of the hero’s masculinity in a selection of post-millennial popular romance narratives and attempts to discover if, and to what extent, this projection reinforces or challenges patriarchal ideas about gender. In the majority of these narratives the hero is often presented as a hegemonic alpha male. However, hegemonic masculinity is not a fixed concept. Rather, it is subject to continuous change which allows for the emergence of various dominant masculinities. Under a poststructuralist lens and through a close textual analysis approach and a gender reading of romance narratives, the book suggests that to a certain extent the romance hero could be described as a platform onto which different forms of dominant masculinity are displayed and highlights that these masculinities do not necessarily clash, depend on, or function as a prerequisite for each other.