Introduction to the Second Edition of Men Beyond Desire The Childhood of American Art: Reframing Literary Masculinities

The first edition of Men Beyond Desire was centrally concerned with a particular figure in nineteenth-century American writings: the inviolate male, resistant to heterosexual marriageHeterosexual marriage and compulsory brotherhoodCompulsory brotherhood. In two subsequent books, I have built on this central idea to explore masculinityMasculinity, gender and sexual identity, and same-sex desire in nineteenth-century American literature.