Alex Hobbs earned her doctorate in English from Anglia Ruskin University and teaches through The Open University. She has published articles in Journal of American Culture, Critique: Studies in Contemporary Fiction, and Philip Roth Studies, among others. She is the author of book chapters on Michael Chabon, Philip Roth, and John Irving. Hobbs is also the production editor for the online journal Akademeia.

A hallmark of contemporary masculinity studies is its examination of multiple masculinities as masculine gender intersects with race, sexuality, class, and religion. Hobbs expands this trajectory to a group that is familiar yet underexamined in terms of masculinity: the aged. She combines the insights of gender studies with work in feminist gerontology and cultural studies of aging to interrogate the construction of masculinity for older men. Using cultural texts such as Pixar’s Up (2009) and ABC’s Modern Family to demonstrate the reductive stereotyping of older men, the author first develops a framework that clarifies the possibilities for aged masculinities. She then turns to literary fiction by writers such as John Updike, Don DeLillo, Paul Auster, Richard Powers, Ethan Canin, and Jonathan Franzen, producing challenging readings that demonstrate how these writers' characters consistently measure their manhood within a framework of anxiety about aging. In the fourth and final chapter, Hobbs explores the complex older characters produced by female writers Marilynne Robinson, Anne Tyler, and Jane Smiley. In each case, she highlights the unique possibilities that these fictions offer for older male identities. With this volume, Hobbs has added an important new dimension to considerations of masculinity in American literature and culture.Summing Up:Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty.

Alex Hobbs earned her doctorate in English from Anglia Ruskin University and teaches through The Open University. She has published articles in Journal of American Culture, Critique: Studies in Contemporary Fiction, and Philip Roth Studies, among others. She is the author of book chapters on Michael Chabon, Philip Roth, and John Irving. Hobbs is also the production editor for the online journal Akademeia.

A hallmark of contemporary masculinity studies is its examination of multiple masculinities as masculine gender intersects with race, sexuality, class, and religion. Hobbs expands this trajectory to a group that is familiar yet underexamined in terms of masculinity: the aged. She combines the insights of gender studies with work in feminist gerontology and cultural studies of aging to interrogate the construction of masculinity for older men. Using cultural texts such as Pixar’s Up (2009) and ABC’s Modern Family to demonstrate the reductive stereotyping of older men, the author first develops a framework that clarifies the possibilities for aged masculinities. She then turns to literary fiction by writers such as John Updike, Don DeLillo, Paul Auster, Richard Powers, Ethan Canin, and Jonathan Franzen, producing challenging readings that demonstrate how these writers' characters consistently measure their manhood within a framework of anxiety about aging. In the fourth and final chapter, Hobbs explores the complex older characters produced by female writers Marilynne Robinson, Anne Tyler, and Jane Smiley. In each case, she highlights the unique possibilities that these fictions offer for older male identities. With this volume, Hobbs has added an important new dimension to considerations of masculinity in American literature and culture.Summing Up:Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty.

Alex Hobbs earned her doctorate in English from Anglia Ruskin University and teaches through The Open University. She has published articles in Journal of American Culture, Critique: Studies in Contemporary Fiction, and Philip Roth Studies, among others. She is the author of book chapters on Michael Chabon, Philip Roth, and John Irving. Hobbs is also the production editor for the online journal Akademeia.

A hallmark of contemporary masculinity studies is its examination of multiple masculinities as masculine gender intersects with race, sexuality, class, and religion. Hobbs expands this trajectory to a group that is familiar yet underexamined in terms of masculinity: the aged. She combines the insights of gender studies with work in feminist gerontology and cultural studies of aging to interrogate the construction of masculinity for older men. Using cultural texts such as Pixar’s Up (2009) and ABC’s Modern Family to demonstrate the reductive stereotyping of older men, the author first develops a framework that clarifies the possibilities for aged masculinities. She then turns to literary fiction by writers such as John Updike, Don DeLillo, Paul Auster, Richard Powers, Ethan Canin, and Jonathan Franzen, producing challenging readings that demonstrate how these writers' characters consistently measure their manhood within a framework of anxiety about aging. In the fourth and final chapter, Hobbs explores the complex older characters produced by female writers Marilynne Robinson, Anne Tyler, and Jane Smiley. In each case, she highlights the unique possibilities that these fictions offer for older male identities. With this volume, Hobbs has added an important new dimension to considerations of masculinity in American literature and culture.Summing Up:Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty.