Men's Silences

"Men's Silences" represents a personal and a political attempt to break out of the narrow parameters of men's sexual politics. It focuses on the relationship of men's feelings to language. The early chapters provide a social context for exploring the practice and theorizing of men's sexual politics. Rutherford continues by developing an alternative theoretical framework for addressing male subjectivity, using Wittgenstein's theory of language and the psychoanalytic theories of Winnicot, Bion and Klein. He argues for the centrality of the pre-oedipal mother-son relationship in the making of male subjectivity, language and identity. The figure of the father is seen as developing out of this principal relationship. In the ensuing oedipal drama emerge the central themes of reflexive analysis, heterosexual desire, masochism. maternal loss, homosexuality and violence. Rutherford uses cultural trends and the films "Paris Texas", "The Dead Poets Society" and "Rambo" to illustrate and explain these. "Men's Silences" aims to provide a psychoanalytic and theoretical account of male subjectivity.