Harlot’s Ghost, Bildungsroman, Masculinity and Hemingway

Authors

  • Alexander Hicks Emory University Author

Keywords:

Ernest Hemingway, Harlot’s Ghost, masculinity in literature, male identity and development, CIA fiction and espionage narrative, American literary influence

Abstract

Harlot’s Ghost is the Bildungsroman of the education of Harry Hubbard. It is a novel of protagonist Harry Hubbard’s psychological, moral and social shaping in the course of his journey from youth—adolescence in Harry’s case—to a degree of consolidation of adulthood. Harlot also is a picaresque of that same education. Harry’s development as a man is marked mainly by his armoring himself against dangers, not by Harry initiating or escalating aggression. To draw on Hemingway, Harry’s "manly development” brings more of the grace under pressure of early Hemingway characters like Nick Adams and Jack Barnes than of the occasional public belligerence of the late Papa, or of the middle-aged Mailer.

Author Biography

  • Alexander Hicks, Emory University

    Alexander Hicks is Winship Distinguished Research Professor of Sociology, Emory University (PhD, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1979). He is author or co-editor of books including Social Democracy and Welfare Capitalism and first author of papers in leading Sociology and Political Science journals. He has twice served as editorial board member for the American Sociological Review and was inaugural co-editor of the Socioeconomic Review. He has been an omnivorous reader of fiction and fiction criticism since around 1960.

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Published

2026-03-25

Issue

Vol. 4 No. 1 (2010): Literary Warriors

Section

Articles