6 x 9. 400 pgs. 12 B&W photographs. (1995) Paper 978-0-472-06572-1 $27.95S  Available Add to Cart Search this Book's Content About the Book Praise Look Inside Subjects Gender Studies--Gay and Lesbian Studies / Literary Studies--Literary Criticism and Theory / Theater and Performance

Act Like a Man
Challenging Masculinities in American Drama

Robert Vorlicky

Named a Choice Outstanding Academic Title

How men communicate with each other on stage when no women are present--and what it tells us about power and gender

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Praise for the Book

"A major addition to the study of gender not only in drama but in American literature in general; its textually specific investigation of the perceived need to act in order to possess a masculine identity will help to place dramatic literature at the center of all performative studies of gender. Act Like a Man is a work of deep scholarship and critical originality."
--Michael Cadden, Director of the Program in Theater and Dance, Princeton University

"An important and immensely worthwhile book, Vorlicky's ideas on masculinity and its effects will add considerably to current debates and discussions. He addresses issues of race and ethnicity in a very sophisticated manner, offering complex and intelligent readings of plays by men of color. Act Like a Man will engage a wide readership in theater and drama studies, women's and gender studies, gay studies, American studies, and cultural studies."
--David Román, University of Washington

"Vorlicky privileges gender over race and class, claiming that the majority of American male-cast drama is misogynist, homophobic, and racist because of the rid gender codings which underlie realism and patriarchal drama. The book attempts to look beyond this dominant, fixed code 'to reveal how the discourse coherence in [alternative] male-cast plays[s} arrives finally at sustained personal dialogue,' engaging men in mutual self-disclosure, avoiding violence and bringing about a new tolerance of difference. In calling for a revisioning of masculinity on the American stage, which would 'dramatize the diversity of men's lives, the range of masculinities,' Vorlicky's book is a most welcome contribution to the fields of gender studies and American drama."
--Theatre Insight

". . . an important addition to the growing number of fine books building on psychoanalytic, feminist, and gay critiques of masculinity."
--American Literature

"Vorlicky's book is a welcome contribution to the semiotics of drama, gender studies, and cultural studies. His in-depth rereadings of representative American male-cast plays at the intersection of gender, race, sex(uality) and ethnicity will surely become an influential point of reference and/or polemics for both students of drama and theatre practitioners."
--Theatre Studies