Masculinity and Male Codes of Honor in Modern France

by Robert A. Nye (Author)
November 1998
First Edition
Paperback
$36.95, £31.00
Title Details

Rights: Available worldwide
Pages: 336
ISBN: 9780520215108
Trim Size: 6 x 9
Illustrations: 3 b/w illustrations

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About the Book About the Author Table of Contents Related Books

About the Book

In this study of upper-class masculinity from the end of the ancien régime in 1789 to the end of World War I, Robert Nye argues that manhood, masculinity, and male sexuality is, like femininity, a cultural construct, comprising a strict set of heroic ideals and codes of honor which few men have been able to realize in practice. In doing so, Nye destabilizes and historicizes the male body, and incorporates gender into the brand of cultural history inaugurated by Norbert Elias in the 1930s.

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).

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