1. The Transition: a novel. 2. The space allowed to women in selected contemporary male-authored texts: a critical essay

Smith, Richard William Charles

Abstract

This project aims to creatively reclaim a literary space for women as the victims of male violence, and to critically examine the space women have been allowed in recent maleauthored literary works. The creative component, The Transition, is an intervention; a reworking of The Taming of the Shrew, which attempts a disruption of anti-feminist backlash narratives against feminist gains. Informed by my critical research, my novel reverses the current patriarchal advantage of men in gendered power negotiations, and places women in a world in which they hold most of the power. Using humour, I address the current situation of male violence against women, and I portray the inability of men to deal with the levels of male violence, although enabled by patriarchal structures, as a natural and unavoidable consequence of their gender. In this way, I satirise one of the principal current themes of the backlash against feminist gains; the positioning of men as the main victims of toxic and hegemonic masculinity. The critical component, presents a novel analysis of three contemporary male-authored texts against the back-drop of the #MeToo movement, and its ongoing transnational vocalisation of the current female experience of male violence. All That Man Is by David Szalay, Lairies by Steve Hollyman, and Male Tears by Benjamin Myers, have each been positioned by their publishers as seeking to explore and illuminate the male experience of contemporary masculinity. To address the absence of feminist scrutiny of these works, I examine the marginalisation and stereotyping of women, the textual misogyny used to disempower them, their exclusion from meaningful discourse, and the positioning of men as the main victims of hegemonic and toxic masculinity to the almost total exclusion of the female-victim experience. I argue that these texts contribute, albeit unwittingly, to the patriarchal backlash against recent perceived feminist gains.

Citation

Smith, R. W. C. 1. The Transition: a novel. 2. The space allowed to women in selected contemporary male-authored texts: a critical essay. (Thesis). Keele University. https://keele-repository.worktribe.com/output/1109354

• Thesis Type: Thesis
• Deposit Date: Mar 20, 2025
• Public URL: https://keele-repository.worktribe.com/output/1109354
• Additional Information: Embargo on access until 1 March 2026 - The thesis is due for publication, or the author is actively seeking to publish this material.
• Award Date: 2025-03