Male Jealousy: Literature and Film is a critical and cultural theory-based study of male jealousy in western culture and its connections with paranoia. By tracing the meanings of jealousy and the representation of jealous men (married or unmarried, heterosexual or homosexual), Lo argues that jealousy is promoted within patriarchy and within what Derrida characterizes as logocentricism, where to love is the desire to be loved, and where love cannot be guaranteed in any form of sexual relationship. Contrasting the difference between jealousy and its closely linked concept, envy, this book explores the economy of possession and its relationship to the body, and argues, controversially, that jealousy is an even more modern concept than envy. Informed by critical theory, engaging in particular with Derrida, Deleuze, Freud, Lacan and Kristeva, the study offers close readings of key works by Cervantes, Shakespeare, Proust, Buñuel, Vidor and Almodóvar, in which a spectrum of different forms of jealousy are portrayed.

Dr Louis Lo is Assistant Professor in the Department of English Language and Literature, Shue Yan University, Hong Kong.