Die Männlichkeit des Romans

This study examines the theory of the novel and the conceptualisation of gender as having been inextricably intertwined since the inception of the former and the rise of modernity. Authors of these theories sought to address not only the relatively young genre of the novel, but also the category of masculinity: theories of the novel became theories of gender. Through an analysis of relevant theories of the novel, from Huet and Blanckenburg via F. Schlegel and Hegel to Vischer and Lukács, this study traces the efforts made in the texts to mutually stabilise masculinity and the novel. This attempt at mutual stability opens points of rupture, revealing the vulnerable achievements of masculinity and the novel.