| |
| author | Michael Anthony Collina |
| title | The Construction of Masculinity in Post-9/11 Literary Narratives |
| abstract |
This thesis explores the construction of masculinity in four post-9/11 texts and examines how each of them does or does not fit into the category of a post-9/11
counternarrative, as defined by Don DeLillo and Thomas Bjerre. By analyzing Sid Jacobson and Ernie Colón's The 9/11 Report: A Graphic Adaptation, Don DeLillo's
Falling Man, Mohsin Hamid's The Reluctant Fundamentalist, and John Updike's Terrorist, this thesis attempts to better understand and critique
how constructions of masculinity have the ability to interact with other discourses in the dominant culture: primarily misogynist gendered rhetoric and representations
of men and women; notions of xenophobia and Islamophobia; and American patriotism. After the terrorist attacks on September 11th, 2001, a hegemonic narrative of the
attacks was presented by the US government and the mainstream media that heavily censored the reality of the attacks. This narrative depended on a homogenized assumption
of 'the other,' and fostered the emergence of a new hegemonic construction of mythic masculinity -- the ordinary man. As the ordinary man rises to inhabit the hegemonic
position post-9/11, the prior hegemonic construction of masculinity -- business masculinity -- falls from the hegemonic position with the destruction of the Twin Towers
at the World Trade Center in New York.
|
| school | The College of Liberal Arts, Drew University |
| degree | B.A. (2016) |
| advisor | Wendy Kolmar |
| committee | Wendy Kolmar
Jinee Lokaneeta
James Hala
Deborah Hess |
| full text | MACollina.pdf |
| |
