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SUMMARY:Fathers and Sons\; Masculinity\, Intergenerational Shifts and Rout
 es of Becoming  - Dr Rachel Spronk\, University of Amsterdam
DTSTART:20150119T170000Z
DTEND:20150119T183000Z
UID:TALK56977@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Judith Weik
DESCRIPTION:This Talk is part of the Centre of African Studies Lent term S
 eminar Series: Gender in Africa \n\nThis paper explores whether the notion
  of alterity will provide useful insights into reconfigurations of gender.
  The focus on identity in scholarship overshadows the simultaneous and una
 voidable process of alterity construction\, of constructing oneself as dif
 ferent. Alterity means a relation of being different from something or som
 eone\, while identity means a relation of sameness or similarity. My argum
 ent is that the notion of alterity is equally useful as is the concept of 
 identity in understanding the processes and practices of gender. In debate
 s about child development and masculinity\, for example\, the notion of id
 entity often implies intergenerational transmission of masculine qualities
  between fathers and sons. Instead\, I am interested in the process of cha
 nges in ideas and practices of masculinity from an intergenerational persp
 ective. In my research on the pursuit of social mobility in Ghana\, many m
 en\, aged from 21 to 98\, told me that they desired “to be different tha
 n my father”. Masculinity was typically the focus of this aspiration\; t
 o be a different man was explained in terms of husbandhood and fatherhood.
  In other words\, gender and sex(uality) are the registers enabling them t
 o work out a different masculinity. This desire for difference in my inter
 locutors’ narratives is best explained through the cipher of alterity ra
 ther than only identity. The paper is based on men’s life stories from d
 ifferent generations.
LOCATION:Seminar Room S1 Alison Richard Building\, 7 West Road\, Cambridge
  CB3 9DT
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