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‘Grin and bear it’: The construction of masculinity through corporal punishment in selected children’s literature Janice Robertson ‘Some of us might say that pain makes a man grow, brings him closer to the Transcendental, makes him more mature, lets him be reborn and have a more profound outlook on reality. […] Nevertheless, we have also experienced the opposite effects: the pain which paralyses, the pain which creates bitterness, 1 which impedes inner growth, which brutalises’. Corporal punishment has been described as the deliberate imposition of pain, but not injury, to instruct and enforce discipline. The harsh reality surrounding the caning of boys in schools proves, however, that the distinction between pain and injury is a concept seldom considered by those who seek to colonise the body and manipulate the mind of the boy. This paper investigates the representations of corporal punishment in selected historical and contemporary children’s literature. Of particular interest to the study is the portrayal of desire, the desired and the despised in texts which, in most cases, serve to perpetuate the dominant discourses of courage and privileged masculinity amongst child readers. The research traces the shifting discourses surrounding the expression and admission of pain by boy protagonists as well as the conspiracy of silence subscribed to by perpetrators and victims alike. The homoerotic tendencies of extreme disciplinarians are discussed, as well as the discourse which promotes silence and courage in the face of corporal punishment as a vindication of masculinity. The paper focuses on relevant extracts from historical school stories by Thomas Hughes and John Finnemore as well as on portions from the works of contemporary writers such as J.K. Rowling and the