Masculinity in Crisis: Hegemony, Marginality, and Aesthetics of Failure in the Arts
NON
A JOURNAL OF ALTERNATIVE SEXUALITIES
IN ANCIENT AND MODERN LITERATURE AND THE ARTS
Issue 4 – 2026
Call for Contributions
Masculinity in Crisis: Hegemony, Marginality, and Aesthetics of Failure in the Arts
In recent decades, the paradigm of masculinity has been increasingly problematized and challenged in the fields of social sciences, cultural studies, gender and queer studies (Connell 1995). Far from being stable or universally applicable, the colossal stature of masculinity has emerged as a space traversed by tensions, counter-narratives, fractures, and processes of symbolic delegitimization.
At the same time, the anti-social strand of Queer Studies has identified in the crisis and failure of the masculine ideal the productive potential of aesthetic-cultural mechanisms that have transformed the most conventional (homo)social forms and relationships. From this perspective, the celebration of anti-futurity in works such as Lee Edelman’s No Futureand Judith Halberstam’s The Queer Art of Failure has demonstrated how the rejection of progressive and reproductive narratives can constitute a form of resistance to dominant heterosexual and neoliberal normativity. Similarly, the concept of “homosocial desire” developed by Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick has helped redefine the nature of relationships between men, moving beyond the traditional homosexual/heterosexual dichotomy. This radical reevaluation has led to to the emergence of contemporary homosocial configurations based on the renegotiation of emotional and symbolic boundaries, ranging from bromance to the representations of non-toxic camaraderie and non-competitive, sublimated forms of male intimacy, motifs that the arts have extensively explored. Among other examples, it is worth mentioning the genre of ‘buddy movies’, as in the subtle homoerotic subtext in Dino Risi’s Il sorpasso or in the more ambiguous and off-putting subtext of John Schlesinger’s Midnight Cowboy (1969); the portrayals of male vulnerability in the novels of Jean Genet or Bret Easton Ellis, up to the most recent and striking literary examples of ‘queer sports romances’ — the new frontier of gay narratives promptly picked up by mainstream television series.
The fourth issue of “NON” invites readers to explore the many ways in which contemporary masculinities in crisis have been addressed by the arts — literature, film, visual arts, and performance — with a particular focus on the following themes: marginalized, eroticized, or reified masculinities; counter-narratives of masochistic or self-destructive male figures; practices of failure, the aesthetics of ruin and vulnerability; narrative and visual strategies of self-destruction; the decline of masculine heroism and the dissolution of the male subject’s teleological arc.
Research areas and topics (non-exhaustive)
Aesthetics of the failure of masculinity, masochism, and anti-heroism in neoliberal and postcolonial narratives;
New homosocial configurations: transformations of male camaraderie, from male intimacy to bromance;
· Poetics of vulnerability, self-sabotage, and self-destruction;
Reification and eroticization of the male body
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The journal welcomes the widest array of studies on the question of alternative sexualities: the debate is open to historical investigations of literature and the arts, to psychoanalysis, thematic criticism, and the many branches of queer theory.
The journal also aims to challenge the boundaries imposed by traditional divisions of knowledge in terms both of history and of geography; hence, to bring together perspectives on artistic forms from antiquity to the 21st century, and diverse cultural traditions.
«Non» is double-blind peer-reviewed, issued yearly in print and online. Contributions are accepted in English, French, German, Italian, and Spanish.
Article body maximum length: 35,000 characters, including spaces (excluding: title, abstract, keywords, author bio and final references).
Abstract’s maximum length: 200 words.
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Submissions should be sent to the following e-mail addresses:
Deadline for submissions: September 30, 2026.
For submission guidelines and further info please check Fabrizio Serra’s submissions page: http://www.libraweb.net/norme_ing.pdf