The Lads from New Ireland: a Textual and Audience Analysis of Marginalised Masculinities in Contemporary Irish Film Debbie Ging B.A., M.A. This thesis is submitted to Dublin City University for the award of PhD in the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences 2006 School of Communications Supervisor: Dr. Barbara O’Connor I hereby declare that this material, which I now submit for assessment on the programme of study leading to the award of PhD is entirely my own work and has not been taken from the work of others save and to the extent that such work has been cited and acknowledged within the text of my own work. Signed:1: ID No: 95160906 Date: 0 ^ / ° f 10 6 Acknowledgements This thesis is dedicated to my mother, Olive Lillian Nichols. I am indebted to my supervisor, colleague and friend, Dr. Barbara O’Connor, who has been supportive, encouraging and patient, always in the right measure. Although they remain unidentified, I owe a huge debt of gratitude to the boys and men who agreed to participate in this research. I am also extremely grateful to the group leaders and coordinators who facilitated the focus groups and who supported me in every way possible. I am especially grateful to the Gender Equality Unit of the Department of Science and Education, which part-funded the completion of this thesis, and in particular to Rhona McSweeney and Maureen Bohan for their support and encouragement. The Gender Equality Unit was established under the NDP (2000-2006) and is co-funded by European Structural Funds. Thanks to the Head of the School of Communications, Brian Trench, for giving me breathing space when I most needed it. Thanks to my colleague Dr. Pat Brereton for constructive feedback and moral support. I am also grateful to Dr. Maggie Gibbon, Dr. Eithne O’Connell and Prof. Luke Gibbons for inspiring and encouraging me to pursue an academic career. Without them I would never have ended up doing this. Thanks also (Tor technical, academic, archival and moral support) to: Dr. Diog O’Connell, Dunlaoire Institute of Art, Design and Technology Dr. Maeve Connolly, Dunlaoire Institute of Art, Design and Technology Julie Allen, DCU Humanities Librarian Eoin Campbell, School of Communications Technician Sunniva O’Flynn, the Irish Film Archive Edwina Forkin, Zanzibar Films Michael Garland, Grand Pictures Gareth Ivory, RTE Audience Research Department Lance Daly, Fastnet Films Macdara Kelleher, Fastnet Films Moira Horgan, Bord Scannan na hEireann / the Irish Film Board Finally, I would like to thank my partner and soul-mate of 15 years, Tom Cahill, and my children Marley and Willow. I have often been asked how I managed to do a PhD with a family but the truth is I couldn’t have done it without them. Table of Contents 1. Introduction................................................................................................................. 1 2. Men Running Wild: the ‘New’ hegemonic Masculinities of Contemporary Cinema........................................................................................... 10 2.1 Introduction...................................................................................................................10 2.2 Choose Life, Choose a Job, Choose a Career: British Underclass Film and the Emergence of the ‘Loser’ Lifestyle.........................................................................17 2.3 Stealin' Stones and Breakin' Bones: Criminal Masculinities in the New Gangster Film...............................................................................................................26 2.4 ‘Hipster Anomie’ and the Fucked-by-Fate Masculinities of American ‘Smart Film’....35 2.5 Reflexive Sado-Masochism and the Angry White Masculinities of the ‘Male Rampage Film’.............................................................................................................43 2.6 Adolescent Masculinities in the American Teen Comedy....................................... .. .52 2.7 Conclusion.................................................................................................................... 57 3. Cool Hibernia?: the Masculinities of the New Crime/Underclass Cycle in Contemporary Irish Film.................................................................................. 59 3.1 Introduction...............................................................................................................59 3.2 The Lads from Old Ireland............................................................................................64 3.3 Irish Cinema's New Anti-Heroes: the ‘Protest Masculinities’ of the Celtic Tiger Era...69 3.4 From Working-Class to Underclass Masculinities.........................................................73 3.5 Marginalised and Socially-Excluded Men.....................................................................79 3.6 Criminal and Delinquent Masculinities......................................................................... 89 3.7 Conclusion.................................................................................................................. 102 4. Men Watching Men: Investigating the Male Audience...................................105 4.1 Introduction.................................................................................................................105 4.2 Approaching the Male Audience.................................................................................110 4.3 The Male Gaze and Spectator ship............................................................................... 115 4.4 Multiple SubJect Positionings: Class, Age and Gender in Practices of Reception...... 125 4.5 Gangsters, Boxers, Kung-Fu Fighters and Action Heroes: Exploring Multiple Pleasures and Identifications.......................................................................................132 4.6 Challenges to Pleasure and the Active Audience......................................................... 139 4.7 Conclusion.................................................................................................................. 144 5. Methodology............................................................................................................ 146 5.1 Introduction................................................................................................................. 146 5.2 Selecting a Category of Film Texts for Analysis..........................................................153 5.3 Qualitative Audience Research Design.....................................................,............. 157 5.4 Selection of Research Participants.................................................. ..................... — 160 5.5 Questionnaire (see appendix 1)....................................................................................166 5.6 Focus-Group Design....................................................................................................168 5.7 Group Interviewing and the Researcher-Researched Relationship...............................170 5.8 Data Analysis.............................................................................................................. 174 5.9 Conclusion.................... ..............................................................................................177 6. National Cinema, Transnational Masculinities: Negotiations of Gender and Nation in Film-viewing Practices.................................................................179 6.1. Introduction..................................................................................................................179 6.2 Mapping Media as Practice: Locating Irish film Consumption within Broader Contexts of Film and Media Use........................................................ 182 6.2.1 Discrepancies in Patterns of Consumption among Groups.......................................... 186 6.3 Qualitative Findings: The Geospatial and Sociospatial Geography of interpretive practices relating to Intermission................................................................................191 6.3.1 “I love watching Dublin films and shit and seeing places that you know”: Local versus National Communities among Young, Working-Class Viewers.............193 6.3.2 “Unbelievably Irish”: Humour as National Imaginary among the GAA Group............ 202 6.3.4 “You wouldn’t want to associate with them”: the Role of Class and Location in Negotiating Character Identification among the Urban Professional Group................206 6.3.5 Locality, Age and Dis-identification among the Rural Men’s Group............................211 6.4 Conclusion...................................................................................................................214 7. Audiencing Masculinity: Viewers’ Perceptions of Irish film’s ‘New’ M en........................................................................................................................... 219 7.1 Introduction..................................................................................................................219 7.2 Male Violence: Symbolic, Performative or Real?........................................................ 222 7.3 Exploring Changing Discourses on Masculinity through Discussions about Intermission and Other Irish Films............................................................................. 229 7.4 Irony and the Postmodern Audience............................................................................ 252 7.5 Conclusion................................................................................................................257