ABSTRACT

Biologically, evolution proceeds by interaction, and that has also been true of this book. Conversations with others have taken me in direct ions I would never otherwise have imagined. Many of those conversations have been with Isaac, Joshua, and Michael Taylor; I had never real ly thought much about manhood until I had three sons. Isaac has also been, over the last year, an invaluable research assistant. The project was transformed by the intellectual fertil ity of students (male and female) in two graduate seminars, one on literary theory at Brandeis University, the other on male sexuality at the University of Alabama. I also learned a lot from audiences at Brown University, the Center for Literary and Cultural Studies at Harvard University, and the Group for Early Modern Cultural Studies conference in Coral Gables. Over the years I have been blessed by energetic research assistants-James Casey, Leah Guenther, Abigail Scherer, Raphael Seligmann, Ron Tumelson-who will notice pieces of this puzzle they put in

place. Every exchange with William Germano at Routledge has inspired and energized me.