Learn more about Dr. Suzanne Ashworth鈥檚 forthcoming book, Perverse Feelings: Poe and American Masculinity
Posted Apr 06, 2021
Suzanne鈥疉shworth, the English Department鈥檚 beloved specialist in early American and LGBTQ literatures is taking sabbatical with the 鈥渓iving dead鈥�: with Edgar Allan Poe and a historical masculinity that haunts our culture. Her forthcoming book,鈥�Perverse Feelings: Poe and American Masculinity,鈥痚ngages with the urgent 21st-century cultural conversation around 鈥渢oxic masculinity.鈥� Although she complicates this phrase, Dr.鈥疉shworth鈥痷nderstands that 鈥渢oxic masculinity鈥� wants to say something important to us. Something about how dark energies 鈥� like anger, violence, revenge, and more — are normalized for American boys and men.
Dr.鈥疉shworth鈥痑rgues that Poe and the men he brought to life on the page speak directly to the now 鈥� to us, our culture. Poe鈥檚 fictions ask familiar questions about sick, disturbed, failing men. What do we do with the 鈥渄ead white men鈥� that ghost our present? How should we feel about white masculine pain and injury? Dr.鈥疉shworth鈥檚 book warns against an uncritical relationship with this distress.鈥�疧ur own culture, she points out, shadows Poe in its vexed relationship with white masculinity. We may condemn the patriarch鈥檚 past transgressions, but we are nostalgic for his dominance. We may disparage an unfeeling masculinity, but we still want the love of the impassive forefather. We may fear the lethal impacts of violent masculinity, but we revel in the wantonness of violent men.
The book found life and energy in the classroom, beginning in conversations Dr.鈥疉shworth鈥痟ad with her students. In classes like: Poe/King/Gothic, American Emo, American Gothic, Masculinities, and more. It took a foundational form in articles and conference papers. In fact, Dr.鈥疉shworth鈥痑nd the project were 鈥渄iscovered鈥� by an editor from prestigious academic publisher when she presented at a Gender Studies conference in 2018.鈥�
For many of us, Dr.鈥疉shworth鈥檚 scholarship 鈥� and teaching 鈥� reinforces the powerful relevance of past and present literatures. With one of her favorite literary thinkers, Dr.鈥疉shworth鈥痶ells her students that when we write 鈥� and when we read 鈥� we learn to stand both inside and outside of ideology. Which means that knowledge is not just power. Knowledge is also freedom.鈥�