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Pardon the cliché, but David Rosen's The Changing Fictions of Masculinity may be a “cutting edge” book. For those who suspect that it could be a reactionary attack on feminism or a trendy pop psychology appeal to Robert Bly's acolytes, fear no more. The Changing Fictions of Masculinity is both a complement and a compliment to feminist theory. Rosen's book is serious literary criticism that deserves a careful reading.
I say “careful reading” because readers must be urged to consider The Changing Fictions of Masculinity in its entirety. The book has chapters on the following works, covering a full millennium: Beowulf, Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, Hamlet, Paradise Lost, Hard Times, and Sons and Lovers. Such breadth poses potential difficulties, even misunderstandings. If, for instance, a medievalist chooses to read only Rosen's chapters on Beowulf and Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, I suspect that reader will find Rosen's work superficial. The strength of Rosen's book lies not in interpretation of individual works, but in the connections he makes gradually and carefully, connections which indicate recurring motifs in this broad span of texts about the problems and anxieties that literature reveals about masculinity. Thus, I appreciated Rosen's reading of Beowulf much more after finishing his later chapters on Hard Times and Sons and Lovers. His emphasis on Beowulf's and