From the Glory of Hera to the Wrath of Achilles

Narratives of Second-Wave Masculinity and Beyond

Dados Bibliográficos

ID4846444
AutoresNancy J Chodorow (Cambridge Health Alliance, autor correspondente)
Ano2015
Volume16
Fascículo4
Páginas261-270
Data de publicação2015-10-02
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessNão
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoStudies in Gender and Sexuality (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 1524-0657 • E-ISSN: 1940-9206
EditoraInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/15240657.2015.1107449
OpenAlexW2204096112
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas5
Referências citadas22

Second-wave psychoanalytic feminism understood masculinity through theories that converge in seeing masculinity in mother-son terms. The dread of women, primary femininity, disidentification, father absence, and society without the father all portray an overpowering mother. Men’s reaction is to define masculinity as the not-feminine and as superior, to deny and deprecate femininity in themselves and in women. After Slater, I call these dynamics the “Glory of Hera.” I suggest that they more accurately describe the generic conflicts of men than Freud’s Oedipus. Here, I suggest a third classical narrative. Masculinity is equally, perhaps more basically, understood in terms of the “Wrath of Achilles.” The fundamental developmental and psychic challenge for men is how to be the senior male who humiliates rather than the junior male who feels humiliated and inferior. These dynamics are widespread clinically, and we find them not only in The Iliad but also throughout the literary and operatic canon

Art · Femininity · Glory · Literature · Masculinity · Narrative · Psychic · Psychoanalysis · Psychoanalytic theory · Sociology · Gender Studies · Psychology · Psychotherapy Techniques and Applications · Shakespeare, Adaptation, and Literary Criticism · Themes in Literature Analysis