What is a woman? What is a man? How do they - and how should they - relate to each other? Does our yearning for 'wholeness' refer to something real, and if there is a Whole, what is it, and why do we feel so estranged from it? This book offers a promising view of human relations.
Through the examination of a range of literary and cinematic texts, from William Wyler's classic The Best Years of Our Lives to the novels of Henry James, Silverman offers a bold new look at masculinities which deviate from the social norm.
The topic of love is consistantly neglected within literary theory. Here, Silverman argues that love has a political role to play as well as a role within the psychic domain.
Combining phenomenology and psychoanalysis in innovative ways, this book seeks to undo the binary opposition between appearance and existence that has been in place since Plato's parable of the cave.