Men and Masculinity - The Presentation of Men and Male Relationships in Three Contemporary British Novels

Men and Masculinity -
The Presentation of Men and Male Relationships in Three
Contemporary British Novels: Alan HOLLINGHURST′s The
Swimming-Pool Library, Nick HORNBY′s High Fidelity and
Irvine WELSH′s Trainspotting

Magisterarbeit im Fach Englische Philologie
an der Freien Universität Berlin

by

Symon Nicklas

Berlin, Dezember 1999

Contents

I Introduction ... 4

II Theoretical Approaches to Masculinity ... 6
II.1 Constructing Gender - Constructing Masculinity ... 6
II.2 Connell′s Concept of Masculinities: Hegemony, Subordination, Complicity and Marginalisation ... 9
II.2.1 Hegemony  ... 9
II.2.2 Oppression and Subordination  ... 9
II.2.3 Complicity  ... 10
II.2.4 Marginalisation ... 10
II.3 Psychoanalytic Perspective  ... 11
II.4 A Role Perspective on Men  ... 12
II.5 A Social Relations Perspective on Men ... 13
II.6 Cultural Ideals of Masculinity  ... 15

III The Novels  ... 16
III.1 Alan HOLLINGHURST - The Swimming-Pool Library  ... 16
III.1.1 Main Homosexual Characters and Their Presentation  ... 17
III.1.2 Minor Homosexual Characters and Their Presentation  ... 25
III.1.3 All-Male Environments ... 28
III.1.4 Presentation of Heterosexual Male Society  ... 33
III.1.5 The Portrayal of Racial Minorities ... 40
III.1.6 Masculinity and Femininity ... 42
III.1.7 Summary ... 43
III.2 Nick HORNBY - High Fidelity ... 45
III.2.1 Rob Fleming  ... 46
III.2.2 Heterosexual Desire  ... 50
III.2.3 Blasts From the Past - Masculine Journey Back in Time ... 52
III.2.4 Male Relationships  ... 56
III.2.5 Summary ... 59
III.3 Irvine WELSH - Trainspotting  ... 60
III.3.1 Working Class in Trainspotting  ... 60
III.3.2 Male Protagonists  ... 63
III.3.3 Male Relationships  ... 74
III.3.4 Changed Masculinity - Drugs and Their Effects ... 76
III.3.5 WELSH and the Feminine Role ... 77
III.3.6 Youth Culture and Masculinity  ... 79
III.3.7 The Older Generation  ... 82
III.3.8 Scottishness  ... 83
III.3.9 Masculinity and Language  ... 84
III.3.10 Summary  ... 85

IV Construction of Stereotypes by the Authors Looking at Their Own

Background/Sexuality ... 86

V Conclusion  ... 90

VI References ... 94

VII Abstract  ... 101

I Introduction
The 1990s has witnessed a groundswell of interest in men and masculinity. The book market saw countless publications, the media took up the topic and discussions about the ′nineties man′ became and still are very much en vogue (even though we are on the brink of the next millennium).

Parallel to public interest there was also an increase in academic writing. Numerous sociological and psychological studies endeavoured to explore the roots of masculinity and examined the mechanisms of its functions in cultures depending of various kinds of gender division. They concluded that masculinity has no fixed concept, that masculinity is not just what a group of men happen to do. Rather it has to be understood in relation to the gender role as a social practice negotiated by men and understood in relation to the gender order. So one should instead speak of ‘masculinities’ if one wants to grasp the different representations of maleness in society.

Feminists and multiculturalists have repeatedly criticised the dominant gender position of men in society and questioned the legitimacy for patriarchy. They asked for a ‘new man’, a new social understanding of male values and attitudes and asked for change. Since the mid-1970s men responded to the call for change, explored aspects of men’s lives and started to question whether the traditional concept (a concept that is still very much practised by men throughout the Western world) of male domination is still irreproachable. This, however, also sparked off a crisis, indeed a dilemma because many men felt that, without a fixed basis to define themselves they lost their bearings. Bearing this in mind it is an interesting question to ask in what way men represent men so the task of my thesis is to find out what kind of men are presented in Alan HOLLINGHURST′s The Swimming Pool Library, Irvine WELSH′s Trainspotting and Nick HORNBY′s High Fidelity and what relationships to other men and women the authors form.

I chose this combination of novels and authors for a number of reasons. The novels are all contemporary works of fiction, in a publicational time span from 1988-1995, making them fictional works written at the peak of masculinity research and the social questioning of masculine concepts. Male characters and their authors come from different social backgrounds and thus promise interesting aspects, which take power, class and sexual orientation into consideration.

I will focus more on Alan HOLLINGHURST’s The Swimming Pool Library and Irvine WELSH’s Trainspotting than on Nick HORNBY’s High Fidelity firstly because of the wider representation of male characters and secondly because of the special status homosexuality and working-class based sub cultures have in society. I will nevertheless try to present the essence of Nick HORNBY’s male representation centring very much on his narrator and protagonist Rob Fleming.

As I am dealing with fictional work, which can only be seen as a representation of society, it is necessary to develop certain tools.

So in chapter II I will present the theoretical framework that I will revert to in order to analyse the different representations of masculinities in my novels. On the one hand I have chosen to concentrate on American sociologist Robert CONNELL’s approach to the gender power structure because it offers a theoretical perspective on masculinity, social inequality and domination1. CONNELL used his approach to analyse the Western European / American concept of masculinity and as I am dealing with novels from Britain, which is very much part of the Western world, and its social construction, I find it a helpful tool to understand the power relations between men and men and men and women. Nevertheless, I have had to include other perspectives, which are necessary to understand male representation, as there is no single theory, or academic approach that can capture all the different facets of men and male life.

In chapter III, the main part of my thesis, I will concentrate on the selected novels. As I am dealing with different representations of masculinity I will, on the one hand take the theoretical framework of chapter II as an analytical guideline and on the other hand try to elaborate on specific forms of male representation that can be analysed in the specific novels. In chapter IV I will attempt to find an answer to the question as to how far the authors construct fictional stereotypes taking their own background and sexuality into consideration and in chapter V I will present a résumé of my findings.

II Theoretical Approaches to Masculinity
This chapter is intended to present the main theoretical approaches I have chosen to use in my thesis. To find out what kind of different concepts of masculinity the novels present and how they are presented one has to answer the following questions: What place in the social power structure do my selected authors place their men in? How are they determined by specific socio-cultural contexts? What kind of self realisation of masculinity do the characters offer? And do the authors themselves, taking their backgrounds into consideration, construct male protagonists, that are characterised by simply being representations of male stereotypes?

[...]

1 Ilse LENZ reviewed CONNELL′s book Masculinites and came to the conclusion that it is "the fundamental study on masculinity as a formative factor of modern social inequality and also one of the most important books in the social sciences in recent years" (cf. LENZ, Ilse: "Reviews". In: KRAMER/LENZ/STRATMANN (eds.): Journal for the Study of British Cultures - Masculinities. Volume 3, No. 2/96, Gunter Narr Verlag, Tübingen, 1996, pp. 193-194.)