Introduction

This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book pays attention to the way in which masculinity operates in George Sand's fiction as a discourse anchoring and guaranteeing cultural authority, and one that Sand both performs and negotiates. It aims to shed new light on this important but often neglected element of her authorial practice, and to open up fresh insights into the meanings attached to masculinity in her work. The book explores the masculinity of representation and processes of masculine (self-) construction respectively; they in turn map out the territory for the two studies of Sand's renegotiation of literary masculinity. It explores the link between paternity and representation through an analysis of two novels, in which a dysfunctional father—son relationship is the central structuring paradigm of the narrative.