Crisis And Reconstruction Of Masculinity In Ian McEwan's Novels

Ian Russell McEwan(1948-)is a writer of great influence in contemporary Britain.His early works characteristically focus on gloomy subjects like violence,incest and perversion,which shock audiences and critics intensely.Hence McEwan is dubbed "Ian Macabre" or Ian the Horrible.However,when Women's Movement and its research have made great strides these years,McEwan shifts his focus to the issue of masculinity.His novels are mainly narrated from the male perspective,which forces us to participate in the reading process,exploring the protagonists' mental world.Based on previous studies,this thesis aims to examine the crisis and reconstruction of Masculinity in McEwan's three novels The Comfort of Strangers,The Child in Time and Enduring Love.This dissertation intends to frame the concept of masculinity under the Western gender theory,conducting a systematic and in-depth analysis of how the core values of masculinity,if deprived,may lead to the crisis of masculinity,and how McEwan in his novels attempts to reconstruct the protagonists' masculinity so as to get them out of their predicaments.Chapter One discusses male emasculation crisis.Drawn upon Foucault's discourse of "body",this chapter explores the gender connotation of the novel from the perspective of problematized body.Physical defects of male characters and effeminate male body erode the strong and muscular body.Also,the male character loses the power of discourse in the family which has invariably been a dominant field of masculinity.Besides,men are stalked and gazed by homosexual,which brings about a lot identity confusion and inherent crisis of masculinity.Chapter Two centers around the attempts of male performance confronting crisis in the three novels.According to Butler's theory,desire for recognition drives males to construct their own masculinity.Approval from others plays an essential role in the construction.To realize the patriarchal expectations of male identity,male protagonists have to live in accordance to social norms of male behavior and perform their own definition of masculinity so as to against their individual predicaments.In The Comfort of Strangers,Robert,brought up by patriarchal discipline,is psychotic and anxious to eliminate the feminine other through violence for the sake of his own unmanliness.When it comes to The Child in Time,Stephen's position as a father verges on collapsing after the abduction of his daughter.He has to defend his masculine dignity by engaging himself in active search for his lost girl.As for Enduring Love,Joe sticks to rational discourse to maintain his endangered masculinity.Chapter Three probes into the possibility of change and reconstruction of masculinity in McEwan's novels.The women's movement and gay liberation in 1960s and 1970s stroke a heavy blow to the hegemonic masculinity.In The Comfort of Strangers,Robert looks for an extreme and ideal type of masculinity,which brings about bloody sexual abuse and murder.Those men who obey and internalize patriarchal concepts are not really contented with the various social disciplines of male activity,but instead they suffer from all sorts of anxiety and uneasiness and,in consequence,self-alienation and betrayal ensue.In McEwan's later novels,the male characters opt to the return of maternity and step out of male egotism,thus accomplishing the reconstruction of masculinity by extricating themselves from social control.