A History of Violences

Authors

  • Jason Mosser Georgia Gwinnett College Author

Keywords:

masculinity and violence, An American Dream, “The White Negro”, existentialism, race and gender, Maggie McKinley

Abstract

Jason Mosser reviews Maggie McKinley’s Masculinity and the Paradox of Violence in American Fiction, 1950–75 (Bloomsbury), which reads Mailer’s An American Dream and “The White Negro” alongside works by Ralph Ellison, Richard Wright, Saul Bellow, James Baldwin, and Philip Roth. Mosser explains McKinley’s existentialist framework, drawn from Beauvoir, Sartre, and Arendt, and her central insight that violence used in the name of liberation reinforces the oppressions it seeks to overturn. He praises the study as fresh and penetrating for refusing to dismiss these authors as simply racist or misogynist.

Author Biography

  • Jason Mosser, Georgia Gwinnett College

    Jason Mosser is Professor of English at Georgia Gwinnett College. He has published numerous reviews, articles, and a book, The Participatory Journalism of Michael Herr, Norman Mailer, Hunter S. Thompson, and Joan Didion: Creating New Reporting Styles. He has recently received a Harry Ransom Fellowship to do research on Mailer’s essay, “The White Negro.”

Downloads

Published

2015-09-30

Issue

Vol. 9 No. 1 (2015): Maestro

Section

Book Reviews

How to Cite

Mosser, Jason. “A History of Violences”. The Mailer Review, vol. 9, no. 1, Sept. 2015, pp. 322–326, https://mailerreview.org/journal/article/view/534.