Men in Transition: A Study of Hegemonic Masculinity in Amy Waldman’s The Submission and Porochista Khakpour’s Sons and Other Flammable Objects

نوع مقاله : مقاله پژوهشی

نویسندگان

1 بخش زبان های خارجی و زبانشناسی، دانشگاه شیراز

2 بخش زبانهای خارجی و زبانشناسی، دانشگاه شیراز

3 بخش زبانهای خارجی - دانشکده ادبیات و علوم انسانی - دانشگاه شیراز

چکیده

This study traces James W. Messerschmidt’s concept of hegemonic masculinity in two post-9/11 novels, The Submission (2011) by Amy Waldman and Sons and Other Flammable Objects (2008) by Porochista Khakpour. Messerschmidt’s Structured Action Theory considers hegemonic masculinities as surreptitiously omnipresent, social constructs whose main purpose is rendering unequal gender relations possible. We believe that this theory can help us better understand the transformations the masculinities of these novels undergo after the 9/11 attacks. In analyzing the novels, we argue that characters who manifest pre-9/11 ideals of American hegemonic masculinity and who are symbolically disempowered by the attacks endeavor to regain their hegemonic status by establishing the hyphenated Middle Eastern and South Asian masculinities as their racial Other and subordinating them in the post-9/11 landscape. In other words, we will focus on the former group’s symbolic emasculation and their subsequent remasculinization in light of the 9/11 attacks and the impact of this transformation on immigrant men in the United States. Moreover, by applying the Structured Action Theory to the aforementioned novels, we aim to show how American hegemonic masculinities, previously defined as strong, untouchable, and invincible, are reconstructed, after the 9/11 attacks, around the ideals of revenge; besides, we explore the responses of the Middle Eastern and South Asian men to their unequal position. Ultimately, we analyze the varying intersections of gender, religion, nationality, race, class, and age which are at work to reconstruct such identities.

کلیدواژه‌ها

موضوعات


عنوان مقاله [English]

Men in Transition: A Study of Hegemonic Masculinity in Amy Waldman’s The Submission and Porochista Khakpour’s Sons and Other Flammable Objects

نویسندگان [English]

  • Amirhossein Vafa 1
  • Marjan Khodamorad Pour 2
  • Alireza Anushiravani 3
1 Department of Foreign Languages and Linguistics, Shiraz University
2 Department of Foreign Languages and Linguistics, Shiraz University
3 Department of Foreign Languages and Linguistics, Shiraz University
چکیده [English]

This study traces James W. Messerschmidt’s concept of hegemonic masculinity in two post-9/11 novels, The Submission (2011) by Amy Waldman and Sons and Other Flammable Objects (2008) by Porochista Khakpour. Messerschmidt’s Structured Action Theory considers hegemonic masculinities as surreptitiously omnipresent, social constructs whose main purpose is rendering unequal gender relations possible. We believe that this theory can help us better understand the transformations the masculinities of these novels undergo after the 9/11 attacks. In analyzing the novels, we argue that characters who manifest pre-9/11 ideals of American hegemonic masculinity and who are symbolically disempowered by the attacks endeavor to regain their hegemonic status by establishing the hyphenated Middle Eastern and South Asian masculinities as their racial Other and subordinating them in the post-9/11 landscape. In other words, we will focus on the former group’s symbolic emasculation and their subsequent remasculinization in light of the 9/11 attacks and the impact of this transformation on immigrant men in the United States. Moreover, by applying the Structured Action Theory to the aforementioned novels, we aim to show how American hegemonic masculinities, previously defined as strong, untouchable, and invincible, are reconstructed, after the 9/11 attacks, around the ideals of revenge; besides, we explore the responses of the Middle Eastern and South Asian men to their unequal position. Ultimately, we analyze the varying intersections of gender, religion, nationality, race, class, and age which are at work to reconstruct such identities.

کلیدواژه‌ها [English]

  • Hegemonic Masculinity
  • Structured Action Theory
  • Post-9/11 Fiction
  • American Hegemonic Masculinities
  • Hyphenated Masculinities