| "This
tremendously readable and engaging book goes against the grain of
our political culture. It is a defense of adventure and of a definition
of masculinity stressing the element of adventure in a culture that
has become increasingly hostile to these values (though they survive,
at least in attenuated form, in our popular culture). It needs to
be read not just as a contribution to literary scholarship but as
a contribution to public debate about the place of heroism in a democratic
society, the prospects for adventure in a post-imperialist world,
the relative merits of an aesthetic versus a moral and religious view
of experience, the strengths and weaknesses of academic culture and
university education, the promise and threat of feminism, and other
important issues."-Christopher Lasch, University of Rochester
In this final volume of the trilogy on the theme of adventure begun
with The Robinson Crusoe Story and Seven Types of Adventure
Tale, Martin Green argues that Western civilization and culture
have been inspired and characterized by the idea of adventure as
much as by more famous ideas like democracy and justice.
Green explores the dimensions of both individual and group or political
forms of adventure, uncovering the presence of the adventure idea,
and tracing its influence, in various kinds of cultural activity
and ideology, from exploration, sports, and nationalistic activity
to philosophy, politics, science, and economics. In most cases,
he finds a cult of energy, risk, and heroism that answers to the
excitement of those stories defined as adventures. Moreover, he
demonstrates that the cult is linked to masculinity and certain
virtues associated with men rather than women. The Adventurous Male
will augment ongoing discussion and debate in the realms of both
feminism and the men's movement. |
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