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Frag[Men]ted: Representations of Masculinity in David Foster Wallace’s Brief Interviews with Hideous Men and Chuck Palahniuk’s Fight Club A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in English at The University of Waikato by HAMISH ANSLEY 2017 ABSTRACT ________________________________________ Supported by a selection of original creative works, this thesis will undertake a comparative study of the ways in which masculinity is represented in David Foster Wallace’s Brief Interviews with Hideous Men and Chuck Palahniuk’s Fight Club. I will begin with an overview of the field of masculinity studies, outlining the theoretical underpinnings of this thesis and its situation within the wider scholarship. Via close textual analysis, this thesis will examine the machinations by which these texts’ characters resist the oppressive forces of hegemonic masculinity and how such resistance frequently reproduces the patterns of hegemonic masculinity and thereby reinforces its dominant position. The way in which both texts make use of fragmented form and style to reflect the fractured experience of those who occupy masculine identities will also be a significant point of discussion. This fractured experience, I will argue, results from dissonant social and cultural expectations and masculinity’s relationship with a complex modern world which induces a sense of dissociation, of disconnection in those who inhabit masculine identities. In concluding, I will suggest that both texts advocate the cultivation of bodily and sensory awareness as a means of combatting the dissociative effects of contemporary masculine experience, and of celebrating multiple, disseminated masculinities over hegemonic ideals. i ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ________________________________________ Many thanks are due to those who have enabled me to create this thesis. I must first thank my supervisor Dr. Tracey Slaughter whose support and encouragement has been unwavering; our meetings seemed always to become quasi counselling and cheerleading sessions and I always left feeling more capable than when I entered. Thank you, Tracey. I would also like to extend my thanks to Dr. Alys Moody, who is no longer at UOW but whose initial guidance in pointing me towards relevant critical and theoretical material was invaluable. Indeed, I would like to thank all of the staff in the English department who have all contributed in some way to this thesis, whether directly via their classes and suggestions for further reading or with general encouragement and enthusiasm. I must thank my co-conspirators in liv.id for putting up with endless masculinity-themed lumps of writing from me each week and whose keen eyes, advice, and opinions have helped polish the creative pieces which appear in this collection. Finally, I would like to thank my mum for her unending support, and any others I have not yet acknowledged. ii TABLE OF CONTENTS ________________________________________ i Abstract ii Acknowledgements 1 Introduction 9 Chapter One — Gross and Pitiless Sameness: Masculinity in David Foster Wallace’s Brief Interviews with Hideous Men 46 Chapter 2 — Remaining Men Together: Masculinity in Chuck Palahniuk’s Fight Club 78 Conclusion — Step into the Blue Clean: Masculinity and Sensory Awareness 92 Bibliography Insecure Men’s Support Group iii INTRODUCTION Frag[Men]ted: Representations of Masculinity in David Foster Wallace’s Brief Interviews with Hideous Men and Chuck Palahniuk’s Fight Club __________________________________________________ This thesis will compare and contrast the representations of masculinity in two contemporary fiction works, Brief Interviews with Hideous Men (1999) by David Foster Wallace, and Fight Club (1996) by Chuck Palahniuk. In particular, I will be focusing on the means by which the texts’ central characters negotiate the tension between hegemonic and non-hegemonic masculinities — means such as the creation of hypermasculine alter-egos, the manipulation of feminine and/or feminist rhetoric, and the subversive occupation of feminine positions to reassert a dominant masculine mode. I will argue that both texts make use of fractured form and style to depict the fragmentary nature of masculinity in contemporary society. This fractured form, I contend, also reflects a quality of dissociation which both texts suggest is a prominent feature of contemporary masculine experience; essentially, the relationship of masculinity to a contemporary society in which rapid technological advancement, expedient mass travel, rampant consumerism, and saturation of information are key characteristics promotes a dissociative mode of existence. In analysing these two texts, I will be drawing on a variety of theoretical works from the field of Masculinity Studies. Interpreting fiction through a Masculinity Studies lens is a relatively new approach in academia and the body of theory underpinning the field is likewise relatively fresh, with many of the most influential works published in the 1980s and 1990s.1 It is necessary, therefore, to undertake a literature review of sorts to chart the landscape of this nascent subject 1 and to situate this thesis within the field. As noted, the 1980s and 1990s were a fruitful period for the publication of Masculinity Studies theory. However, the field’s genesis occurred in the 1960s as a ‘major reconfiguration of academic disciplines’ took place. 2 One such reconfiguration was the adoption of deconstruction as a philosophical perspective into the academic sphere. Deconstruction and similar poststructuralist theories — put simply — question the stability and universality of identity and thereby pave the way for the reassessment of established notions of gender.3 In particular, the binary system of male and female, masculinity and femininity comes under deconstruction’s microscope. Similarly influential and occurring almost in unison with the welcoming of deconstructionism into academia was feminism’s shift from ‘woman’ to ‘gender’ as its core object of study. This further enabled scholarly interrogation of masculinity (along with femininity) as a social construct.4 While not directly employing deconstructionist theory, this thesis will nonetheless take a broadly deconstructionist approach to investigating the representations of masculinity in the aforementioned primary texts. It is useful to state at this point also that my approach to analysing the primary texts will be that of close reading and I aim to avoid speculations of authorial intent. In the 1970s, a generation of men emerged who, as Adams and Savran note, were ‘either actively involved or sympathetic to’ feminism’s increasing criticism of the established gender order, and these men held that the longstanding sexist system (i.e., patriarchal dominance) produced negative effects on their lives as well as the lives of women. In what might be described as the first wave of the ‘men’s movement,’ significant numbers of men began to question just how advantageous it was to be cast as the superior sex and endeavoured to mediate their complicity in patriarchal practices while ‘forg[ing] non-sexist masculinities.’5 It is also important to note the influence of the gay liberation movement of the late 1960s on this rising voice of male discontent. The discourses stemming from this movement viewed misogyny and homophobia as analogous and posited that the power of patriarchal masculinity depends on the feminisation of gay men as well as women. It is clear that this first wave of the men’s movement sought not to turn the spotlight away from feminism or the construction of femininity. Likewise, this thesis is intended as an ally in efforts to expose the damaging effect of the binary gender system. Not surprisingly, the first wave’s deconstructionist analysis of masculinity 2 and its alignment with feminism and the gay liberation movement did not resonate with all men. Not all men embraced what John Beynon describes as the ‘widened range of ‘masculine scripts’ made available by the interrogation of masculinity as a construct.’ 6 Publications such as Robert Bly’s Iron John (1990) sought to convince men that they had been ‘emasculated by feminism and an effeminizing culture,’ implying that men had somehow been deprived of their innate or rightful power. 7 The ‘mythopoetic men’s movement,’ for which Bly’s work served as gospel, held the notion that men could and ought to ‘recuperate their own innate masculine power.’8 Leaders of the movement used a ‘variety of myths, rituals, and stories’ in their efforts to ‘return men to a deep masculine archetype.’9 Among other problematic assertions in Iron John is the notion that ‘only men can initiate men’ into manhood/masculinity.10 I will argue, via analysis of the primary texts, that