Introduction

Abstract

Masculinity is often described with reference to fictional or fictionalized historical characters such as Casanova, Romeo, or Peter Pan. Between the literary text and the needs of an institution there appears to be a strategy in operation. The Teaching Men project explores how text and context, trope and history, narrative and construction can operate within institutionalised settings to produce and promote strategic styles of masculinity. The study looks at how masculine gender positions or stances can be critically influenced by reference to fictional narratives. It also demonstrates how institutions frequently validate the use of fictional narrative structures to promote specific forms of masculine behaviour by its members for its own ends. Centrally the Teaching Men project proposes that a history of masculinity and education are encapsulated within fictional and literary texts. I argue that these in turn directly influence masculine practices both within and beyond the classroom. When viewing the classroom, the boys, the subject of much recent scrutiny, are not the only gendered agents operating within this setting. Both teachers, as well as the institutions themselves, are vulnerable to the ideas that fictional narratives help design, promote and sustain.

If we wish to know about a man, we ask ‘what is his story, his real inmost story’ for each of us is a biography, a story.

Sacks (1998)