ABSTRACT
Men’s studies has examined our culturally defined ideals of masculinity and how they have affected men’s lives, transforming human experiences into ones that are distinctly masculine. Approaching American literature in the light of the concerns and attitude of these studies can change not only our perceptions of male characters and manly ideals but the focus of literary criticism as well. Reading Jewish-American novels from a men’s studies point of view might reveal how notions of masculinity fostered by the Jewish tradition interact with popular ideals of American manhood. The relationship between literary studies from a men’s studies perspective and the larger field of men’s studies as a whole is a reciprocal one. A review of American literature, both popular and “serious,” will disclose the astonishing infrequency with which such alternative images occur.
