Modern Literature & Culture Research Centre & Gallery

Abstract

Differing from the sociological perspectives of scholars such as David Coad, Jeremy Kaye, Matthew Hall, and Brendan Gough who have associated metrosexuality with the post-modern social and cultural condition, Jason Wang’s MRP applies the concept of metrosexuality to the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, arguing that metrosexual identity, deeply immersed in consumer culture, is distinguished from, most notably, the tradition of the flâneur and the dandy. Wang theorizes this concept within the context to the mass-printed culture tradition, placing it within the advent of cultural modernity — that is, the expansion of industrialization and urbanization into consumer culture, the rise of capitalism and commercialism. Through the lens of metrosexuality, Wang examines the emergence of new gender identity within the cultural context of everyday life and social relations. 

Keywords

Metrosexuality, Urbanity, Modernity, Commodity Culture, Fashion, Masculinity, The Strand. 

Supervisor

Dr. Irene Gammel; Second reader: Dr. Lorraine Janzen Kooistra.

Click here to read Jason's bio.

The Great War in Literature and Visual Culture

MLC Themes

The Great War in Literature and Visual Culture

Amid the unprecedented social change of World War I, women renegotiated their identities by dramatically changing the way they engaged with the arts. But how did they do so? And how did everyday citizens engage with the war?

Elsa von Freytag-Loringhoven

MLC Themes

Elsa von Freytag-Loringhoven

Elsa von Freytag-Loringhoven, considered by many to be the mother of Dada, was a daringly innovative poet and an early creator of junk sculpture. “The Baroness” was best known for her sexually charged, often controversial performances.

Modernism in the World

MLC Themes

Modernism in the World

Recent research has departed from the Euro-centric and national view of Modernism to include approaches and methods studying Modernism across national boundaries and across different art forms to include fashion, dance, performance, technology, and visual culture.

Lucy Maud Montgomery

MLC Themes

Lucy Maud Montgomery

L.M. Montgomery is perhaps Canada's most important literary export. She was prolific writer of over 500 short stories and poems, and twenty novels, including the beloved Anne of Green Gables.

Canadian Modernism

MLC Themes

Canadian Modernism

The works of numerous Canadian authors who lived during the modernist era may well constitute the most central and experimental articulation of Canadian modernism in prose, allowing authors to stage cross-cultural, controversial, and even conflicted identities.

Modernist Biography and Life Writing

MLC Themes

Modernist Biography and Life Writing

Life writing, including autobiographical accounts, diaries, letters and testimonials written or told by women and men whose political, literary or philosophical purposes are central to their lives, has become a standard tool for communication and the dissemination of information.