Masculinity in British Cinema, 1990-2010

From the new man to the metrosexual, British society from the 1990s to the 2000s was pre-occupied with questions about masculinity, and more specifically with the idea that it was somehow 'in crisis.' The first book-length study of British cinematic representations of masculinity in this period, this fascinating study offers a feminist analysis of key tropes in this era, including the New Lad, fatherhood and masculine violence. Positioning these representations within the specific context of British manifestations of postfeminism and neoliberalism, the book explores the shifting representations of masculinity in popular British cinema and offers a detailed analysis of important recent developments in gender culture. With case studies of films like Brassed Off (1996), The Full Monty (1997), Trainspotting (1996) and About a Boy (2002), this book is a fascinating insight into an understudied period of British cinema and culture.

Table of Contents:
List of Illustrations Acknowledgements Introduction: Masculinity in British Cinema 1990-2010 1: Changing Britain, Changing Men From ‘New’ Man to the New Millennium 2: Representations of Class, Crisis and White Masculinity in Postfeminist, Neoliberal Britain 3: From Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels to The Football Factory: Lad culture and its legacy 4: Social Exclusion, Poverty Culture and Marginalised Masculinities Narratives of Youth and Race 5: Framing Fatherhood Class, Race and discourses of dysfunction and redemption 6: Violence and victimhood: Representations of Excessive Masculinities Conclusion: Reflections on Representations of Masculinity in British Cinema 1990-2010 Bibliography List of Films List of Television Programmes

About the Author :
Sarah Godfrey is Lecturer in Film and Television Studies at the University of East Anglia. Her publications include work on gender, race and class in British and American film and television.

Review :
A significant contribution to an understanding of the variety of masculine representations in British films during a period of social, cultural and industrial turbulence. It also contributes to the literature on masculinity and should become required reading for students and scholars investigating the politics of gender and its intersection with ethnicity, class and national identity. Bringing an era of profound disruption and social and cultural change into view, this book offers a rich account of the ways in which cinema represents 1990s and millennial British masculinity. Sarah Godfrey’s Masculinity in British Cinema is essential reading for researchers interested in questions of gender, class and national identity. With this analysis of masculinity in British cinema at the turn of the century, Godfrey is both wide ranging and sharply focused, considering the representations of British men from lad culture to the margins, and in relation to fatherhood, class, race and violence. Godfrey goes deep into meaningful filmic examples, setting them at the intersections of neoliberalism and postfeminism, and within the industrial context of British cinema in a particularly fruitful period when it challenged and reinvented masculine archetypes.　 This feminist intervention is a compelling analysis of British men in postfeminist movies, and a significant contribution to the understanding of contemporary discourses of intersectional masculinity.