Hegemony and Trauma

Polish Literature and the Transformations of Masculinity
Erscheinungsjahr 2026
ISBN: 978-3-631-94876-7
Verlag: Peter Lang GmbH, Internationaler Verlag der Wissenschaften

Buch, Englisch, Band 3, 410 Seiten, Format (B × H): 148 mm x 210 mm, Gewicht: 596 g

Reihe: Beyond Boundaries

An interdisciplinary and transdiscursive approach to describe Polish masculinities of the twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. The book thoroughly rethinks the Polish literary studies in the context of various masculinities shaped in Polish culture over the last two centuries. Drawing on theoretical foundations from social sciences, psychoanalysis, and literary theory, Smieja reveals how the dominant literary fiction of masculinity attempts to justify its claim to hegemony and domination by pointing to historical traumas.
"A compelling interpretive narrative: masculinity in patriarchal societies emerges as a dominant yet deceptive fiction of the male world that ultimately produces historical traumas, eventually fracturing and distorting male identity."

– Prof. Tomasz Tomasik

"Smieja’s book masterfully dissects masculinity as a fantasy formation, a myth, a fiction rather than a stable, symbolically dominant reality."

– Prof. Inga Iwasiów

Autoren/Hrsg.

Smieja, Wojciech

Über Autor(innen)

Wojciech Smieja is an Associate Professor of Polish Studies at the University of Silesia in Katowice who specializes in gender, queer, and masculinity studies. His four monographs focus on the representation and expression of male homosexuality and masculinity in Polish literature and culture in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.