Men and Masculinities in Irish Cinema

Spanning a broad trajectory, from the New Gaelic Man of post-independence Ireland to the slick urban gangsters of contemporary productions, this study traces a significant shift from idealistic images of Irish manhood to a much more diverse and gender-politically ambiguous range of male identities on the Irish screen. Ging argues that Irish filmmakers have been instrumental to identifying critical flashpoints and fissures in the ‘masculinity’ debate, sometimes long before sociologists, psychologists and the news media. She tracks evolving cinematic discourses on manhood, from the early period of nationalist filmmaking through the First Wave’s unusually anti-patriarchal and anti-nationalist interventions, to post-Celtic Tiger cinema’s engagements with postfeminism, New Laddism and Raunch Culture. This is a compelling and insightful story about the development of male identities in Irish cinema over the past century.

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