Masculinity and Male Codes of Honor in Modern France

by Robert A. Nye

Overview

Gender studies have become an area of great interest in many disciplines. Here, Nye examines the evolving definitions of masculinity in France since the eighteenth century. Specifically, Nye looks at how the aristocratic ethos of male honor, rooted in a society of landlords, hunters, and warriors, adapted to a society motivated by utilitarian values, town life, and rational law. He focuses on the cultural practices and mentality of middle and upper class males and the appeal of their codes to men throughout French society.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780195364392
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	03/18/1993
Series:	Studies in the History of Sexuality
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	2 MB

About the Author

Robert A. Nye is Horning Professor of the Humanities and Professor of History at Oregon State University. He is the author of Crime, Madness, and Politics in Modern France (1984).

Table of Contents

1	Introduction: Sex, Society, and Identity	3
2	Honor and Male Identity in the Old Regime	15
3	The Roots of Bourgeois Honorability	31
4	Sex Difference and the "Separate Spheres,"	47
5	Population, Degeneration, and Reproduction	72
6	Male Sexual Identity and the "Perversions" in the Fin de Siecle	98
7	Bourgeois Sociability and the Point d'Honneur: 1800-1860	127
8	The Culture of the Sword: Manliness and Fencing in the Third Republic	148
9	Honor and the Duel in the Third Republic, 1860-1914	172
	Dueling and the Law	173
	How Many Duels?	183
	The Journalistic Duel	187
	The Political Duel	191
	The "Serious" Duel	200
	The "Futile" Duel	210
10	Conclusion: Courage	216
	Notes	229
	Bibliography of Selected Secondary Works	297
	Index	311

Editorial Reviews

"Robert Nye...has taken up the daunting challenges of writing about masculinity through a courageously eclectic approach. Few theoretical stones remain unturned...[T]he chronological sweep is no less impressive, from the Old Regime to about 1920....[F]requently fascinating."—Journal of Modern History

"Robert Nye has written a provocative book. Indeed, if you are interested in understanding the cultural construction of masculinity, this is a book that could change your life."—Journal of the History of Medicine

"The material Nye presents is fascinating, and often amusing...Argued with impressive scholarship, exhaustive mastery of the secondary literature, painstaking examination of method and theory, and careful archival selection."—Times Literary Supplement

"Nye's book...constitutes a significant contribution to the study of masculinity in the 19th century. It reminds us how complex the study of sexuality and masculinity can be, as they remain inextricably tied to virtually every area of human experience."—Committee on Lesbian and Gay History Newsletter

"Nye's work is a fascinating study based on solid archival research and a thorough grasp of the literature...This provocative and often amusing book is a valuable addition to the growing field of male gender history."—Journal of Social History

"His is the first account to apply a consistently gendered analysis to duelling in recent French history...Nye has provided us with two invaluable studies about medical discourse and about duelling."—French History

"Thoughtfully written, with enough nods to social and psychoanalytic theories to illuminate rather than encumber his subjects, this book is required reading for all historians of nineteenth-century France."—ISIS

"(Nye) demonstrates better than anyone else has why and how nineteenth-century masculinity was problematized and, in revealing the social and cultural preoccupations which went into the construction of perverts, makes a major contribution to the history of sexuality."—Canadian Journal of History

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