Male Matters

Calvin Thomas's Male Mattersreveals the act and production of writing as a bodily, material processthat transgresses the boundaries of gender. Wise and quirky, sophisticatedand coarse, serious and hilarious, this look at male identity and creativityand dislocation at the end of the twentieth century definitely will notassuage male anxiety!"An excellent and importantbook. . . . By mixing high and low, by speaking candidly about what weusually keep in the (water) closet, while simultaneously engaging the'highest' philosophies of language and culture, Thomas calls the entireenterprise of criticism into question." -- Jeremy Earp, Journal of Gay, Lesbian, and Bisexual Identity"A brave, indispensableexercise in writing the male body, and a tour de force of theoreticallyinformed close reading." -- Kevin Floyd, Journal of the Midwest Modern Language Association"Both analyzes and performsour anxieties about masculinity. . . . This experiment in criticism transgressesboundaries of theory, gender, and academic taste in ways sure to delightand infuriate its readers." -- Gregory Jay, author of America the Scrivener: Deconstruction and the Subject of Literary History"Calvin Thomas is ableto hint at a way out of the prison-house, as he puts it, of straight maleidentity." -- Kathy Acker, author of In Memoriam to Identity