Department Bookshelf: A Humanities Pedagogy Approach to Modern Masculinity

A Humanities Pedagogy Approach to Modern Masculinity

Introduction: A Humanities Response to the Crisis of Modern Masculinity

Chapter 2: No Country for Young Men? Developing a Literary Engagement Pedagogy to Address the Crisis of Modern Masculinity in Classrooms

Chapter 4: We Are Still Fighting The Chocolate War: How Robert Cormier’s Vision of Male Adolescence Addresses Urgent Concerns

Book Description

A Humanities Pedagogy Approach to Modern Masculinity examines how classroom-based practices from across the humanities can counter the anti-egalitarian narratives shaping contemporary manosphere discourse.

Drawing on 12 essays that traverse literature and related fields, this volume explores critical and empathetic pedagogical strategies that illuminate the socio-economic and cultural forces contributing to young men’s growing alienation. By offering alternative narratives to the harmful ideals promoted by influential manosphere figures, the collection moves beyond theoretical critique to propose pragmatic, implementable approaches for educators teaching at primary, secondary, and university levels. Its contributions demonstrate how humanities pedagogy can foster inclusive understandings of masculinity while equipping students to question and resist exclusionary ideology.

A Humanities Pedagogy Approach to Modern Masculinity is essential reading for educators, researchers, and students in education, gender studies, and the humanities seeking effective frameworks to respond to the manosphere’s expanding influence in diverse classroom contexts.

Chapter Descriptions

Introduction: A Humanities Response to the Crisis of Modern Masculinity by Nahum Welang

Although the release of Netflix’s television series Adolescence (2025) ignited necessary debates about the online radicalization of young men in popular digital spaces known as the “manosphere,” these largely avoid engaging with solutions-oriented discourses about averting this worrying phenomenon. Similarly, despite the ability of gender studies scholarship to articulate why young men find the manosphere’s rhetoric seductive, there is some reluctance to move beyond theory and into a more practical pedagogical realm. A Humanities Pedagogy Approach to Modern Masculinity is therefore a necessary attempt to transcend static theorizations by exploring pragmatic and implementable solutions to the radicalization crisis of young men. The chapters in this volume provide timely pedagogical frameworks for educators, across primary, secondary, and higher education, who are striving to address the manosphere’s growing influence in mixed-gender and multicultural classrooms.

Chapter 2: No Country for Young Men? Developing a Literary Engagement Pedagogy to Address the Crisis of Modern Masculinity in Classrooms by Nahum Welang

In this chapter, the author proposes a Literary Engagement Pedagogy (LEP) that uses familiar literary texts, such as Louis Sachar’s Holes , Shakespeare’s Macbeth, and Stephen Crane’s “The Open Boat,” and a range of instructional methods, such as double Think-Pair-Share, mind maps, and role play, to develop three teaching strategies that encourage young male students, and their peers, to critique the harmful masculine ideals emanating from the manosphere. These interconnected strategies, titled Affective Empathy Engagement Strategy (AEES), Reframing Traditional Masculinity Engagement Strategy (RTMES), and Alternative Masculinities Engagement Strategy (AMES), are a valuable resource for teachers because they directly address ongoing discourses about the manosphere’s growing influence and are designed to target a broad range of students (from primary school to university).

Chapter 4: We Are Still Fighting The Chocolate War How Robert Cormier’s Vision of Male Adolescence Addresses Urgent Concerns by Jessica Allen Hanssen

This chapter addresses Cormier’s 1974 young adult novel The Chocolate War, which has been both lauded and criticized for its realistic portrayal of violence, bullying, and peer pressure among boys at school. Its oppressive tone and heavy use of symbolism relentlessly drives a message of despair, yet the protagonist’s resistance against an abusive system resonates far beyond its pages. Since the so-called ‘golden age’ of young adult literature, educators have turned away from novels like The Chocolate War in favor of more explicitly positive texts, potentially leading to disengagement from boys and young men in particular, who are then at risk to turn toward malicious influences who offer solutions that harm rather than help. The Chocolate War’s Naturalism-inspired style and tone appeals to these vulnerable readers, provides educators with the basis for meaningful dialogue and critique of harmful masculine ideals, and also relatably shows how these ideals originate and flourish: not in the ‘manosphere hivemind,’ but in the communities we inhabit. The chapter, therefore, explains the historical context for the novel, provides thematic insights into its contemporary relevance, and offers guidance for teachers who wish to engage with this novel in their classrooms toward building community.