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'In 1953 in Scotland, sixteen-year-old Andrew is eager to begin his apprenticeship as a ship's engineer at the Dalrossan Dockyard but soon realizes that his new workplace is full of unwritten rules and dangerous undercurrents and that he cannot tell his friends from his enemies.' University of Queensland Library record.
Notes
Epigraph: Tyro: A beginner or learner in anything; one who has mastered the rudiments only of any branch of knowledge. Shorter Oxford English Dictionary.
The management of tyroes of eighteen is difficult. William Cowper 1731-1800.
Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of
(Un)Doing Gender : Ways of Being in an Age of UncertaintyKerry Mallan,
2012single work criticism — Appears in:
What Do We Tell the Children? : Critical Essays on Children's Literature2012;(p. 12-25)Kerry Mallan examines the configurations of gender and sexuality in recent children's fiction in light of the regulatory pressures of heteronormativity and considers the potential for expanding and enriching concepts of masculinity and femininity for young readers [...] Mallan considers the role and accountability of the publishing and culture industries in this arena of socialization and emphasizes the importance of providing counter narratives to hegemonic systems of being gendered and ways of knowing gender." (Bhroin & Kennon, 2012, p.3)
Men/Boys Behaving Differently: Contemporary Representations of Masculinity in Children's LiteratureKerry Mallan,
2001single work criticism — Appears in:
English In Australia,November
no.
1322001;(p. 57-64)'Crisis' has been the password of recent writings about boys, masculinity and manhood from
popular journalism to academic press. In all of these often disparate accounts there is the
attempt on the part of the writers to find an anchorage in the storm, to utter a temporary
'truth' on the current state of affairs. In a similar way, the cause for the so-called 'crisis in
masculinity' is just as diverse.With this brief outline of the discourse of 'crisis in masculinity' in mind, this paper will
2
consider what contemporary writing for young people can offer in terms of the current issues
impacting on masculinity. In particular, specific questions will emerge as part of the
discussion: How are writers for young people contributing to critiques of masculinity (and
gender generally) through strategies of parody, self-reflexivity, and subversion? In reading
these fictional accounts, does a more serious account of current anxieties lie beneath their
playful surfaces? How might students benefit from an engagement with these and other texts
in terms of their developing understandings of gender in general and masculine subjectivities
in particular?
Men/Boys Behaving Differently: Contemporary Representations of Masculinity in Children's LiteratureKerry Mallan,
2001single work criticism — Appears in:
English In Australia,November
no.
1322001;(p. 57-64)'Crisis' has been the password of recent writings about boys, masculinity and manhood from
popular journalism to academic press. In all of these often disparate accounts there is the
attempt on the part of the writers to find an anchorage in the storm, to utter a temporary
'truth' on the current state of affairs. In a similar way, the cause for the so-called 'crisis in
masculinity' is just as diverse.With this brief outline of the discourse of 'crisis in masculinity' in mind, this paper will
2
consider what contemporary writing for young people can offer in terms of the current issues
impacting on masculinity. In particular, specific questions will emerge as part of the
discussion: How are writers for young people contributing to critiques of masculinity (and
gender generally) through strategies of parody, self-reflexivity, and subversion? In reading
these fictional accounts, does a more serious account of current anxieties lie beneath their
playful surfaces? How might students benefit from an engagement with these and other texts
in terms of their developing understandings of gender in general and masculine subjectivities
in particular?
(Un)Doing Gender : Ways of Being in an Age of UncertaintyKerry Mallan,
2012single work criticism — Appears in:
What Do We Tell the Children? : Critical Essays on Children's Literature2012;(p. 12-25)Kerry Mallan examines the configurations of gender and sexuality in recent children's fiction in light of the regulatory pressures of heteronormativity and considers the potential for expanding and enriching concepts of masculinity and femininity for young readers [...] Mallan considers the role and accountability of the publishing and culture industries in this arena of socialization and emphasizes the importance of providing counter narratives to hegemonic systems of being gendered and ways of knowing gender." (Bhroin & Kennon, 2012, p.3)
