A Study Of Masculinities In Tim Winton’s Works

The contemporary Australian writer Tim Winton(1960-)is a four-time winner of the Miles Franklin Award,the most prestigious literary award in Australia,and is one of the most internationally-renowned Australian writers.On the one hand,he has attained various acclaims due to his long-standing commitment to writing about Western Australia,as well as for his concern about environmental issues.On the other hand,his subversive representations of masculinity/femininity have incurred controversy,and even criticism.The reason behind his critics’ negative views is that they have specifically examined his images of male or female characters,and deployed certain methodologies as represented by traditional feminism,ignoring the complexity of his literary representations and masculinity dynamics.Based upon Connell’s theory of masculinity,this dissertation attempts to examine Winton’s representations of masculinity and its cultural implications in the contexts of gender,class and nation.The introduction briefly presents Tim Winton’s biography and writing,as well as the rationale for this study,making a literature review of Winton’s works both at home and abroad,stating the research objectives and significance,theoretical approach,and the framework of this dissertation.Masculinity is one of the recurrent motifs in Winton’s works,and is their most debatable aspect in academia,as well as the key point of various controversies concerning gender.The literature review mainly comprises a gender study of Winton’s works,with the main viewpoints being divided in two groups.Scholars represented by Sara Zapata,Lyn Mc Credden and Nathaniel O’Reilly hold that Winton subverts traditional masculinity,rendering his male characters with conventional feminine attributes,thereby liberating men from the fear and pressure of patriarchy.Meanwhile,Hannah Schuerholz,Lekkie Hopkins and Collen Mc Gloin note that although Winton presents masculinity/femininity in a subversive manner,his female characters are stereotyped,ranging from exhibitions of self-harm to transience.Women in Winton’s male-dominated narratives are usually absent,serving only as the foil for men’s identity constructions.Although scholars have pointed out that Winton subverts traditional masculinity/femininity,they seldom analyze his strategies or intentions.They discuss masculinity mainly in terms of gender,without paying due attention to the interplay between masculinity,class and nation.This dissertation draws upon Connell’s theory of masculinity to probe into the strategies and intentions behind Winton’s subversive representations of masculinity,as well as their implications,which are conducive to broadening the literary dimension of masculinity studies,while at the same time providing reference points for those who may be suffering masculine anxieties in real life.The first chapter takes “From ‘Problematisation’ to ‘Performativity’: The Disenchantment of Masculinity” as its title,and investigates how Winton subverts traditional masculinity and disenchants its myth in the context of gender.Firstly,Winton reveals the dark side of masculinity,namely,that of toxic masculinity.In Winton’s works,as represented by Shallows and The Turning,toxic masculinity is presented in various forms,such as domestic violence,murder,bullying,sexism and misogyny,which bring not only agony to others,but also raise trouble or danger for the subjects characterized by such attributes.For these circumstances,Winton provides some redemptive solutions,such as reading,becoming closer to nature,and communicating with others.In addition,Winton explores the decentralization process of masculinity.A case in point is found in Breath,a bildungsroman novel in which Bruce Pike,the narrator,spares no effort to challenge the games of breath-holding,surfing,and sexual adventure,with an aim towards acquiring identity.However,he is gradually marginalized by Loonie,Sando and Eva,and thus suffers physical and psychological harm.By presenting Pike’s changing attitude towards his past experiences,Winton suggests the repressiveness and destructiveness of traditional masculinity.Finally,Winton portrays some female characters with strong masculine attributes,which are vividly displayed through their bodies.As a result,Winton reveals the performativity of masculinity.In regards to Winton’s female characters,their bodies are by no means a disciplined object constructed by discourse,but an agent participating in social practices.More importantly,they play a key role in the reconfiguration of their possesor’s gender identity.By analyzing the masculinity of Winton’s female characters from the viewpoints of women with strong bodies,women with self-harmed bodies,and women with body-reflexive practices,we can find Winton’s stance of critiquing traditional patriarchal masculinity.Chapter Two,“Transcending the Alternative: The Divergent Construction of Working-Class Masculinity”,revolves around the image of workers in Winton’s writings,examining how Australian working-class masculinity is reconfigured into spiritual masculinity.Born and growing up in a working-class family,Winton is sensitive to changes in class relations,as well as working-class masculinity.In his works,male workers are no longer tough,heroic guys like bushmen,drovers or gold diggers,who are the representatives of the traditional working class.Rather,they are the unemployed,unsocial,defeated and traumatized men who are reluctant to face the tough reality,such as Cleve Cookson in Shallows,Luther Fox in Dirt Music,or Tom Keely in Eyrie,whose unorthodox masculinity can be categorized into two groups,namely,defeated masculinity and mediocre masculinity.Such male characters often escape from the place where they have lived and undertake a quest for a traditional Australian working-class masculinity,characterized by physical strength/craftsmanship,an indomitable spirit,and mateship/egalitarianism.Eventually,rather than constructing the tough masculine identities as expected,these characters reconfigure a new sort of masculinity,full of sacredness and holiness,a spiritual masculinity by virtue of self-reflection,religion(whether Christian or from the wisdom of aborigines)and nature.Although spiritual masculinity is divergent from the initial goal of these characters,who sought to construct a traditional masculinity via adventure and nostalgia,they construct a new form of masculinity,which can be taken as a sort of transcendence.More specifically,on the one hand,spiritual masculinity retains the positive qualities of the traditional Australian working class,while on the other hand,it integrates itself with sensitivity and aesthetic intuition,as well as the pursuit of meaning from a life full of spirituality,the embodiment of traditional femininity.From the analysis undertaken in this section,we discover that a working-class masculinity and productive relations,as well as social transformation,in Winton’s works are closely related.Chapter Three,“The Inescapable Colonial Past: The Anxiety of National Masculinity” focuses upon the issues of Australian national masculinity.Across Winton’s forty-year writing career,his protagonists are usually anxious about their national masculinity,which can be traced back to three patterns of conflicts in Australia,namely,nationalism versus colonialism;nationalism versus imperialism;and nationalism versus multiculturalism or globalization.These conflicts,on a large scale,correspond to three relationships,namely,the relationships between white Australians and indigenous Australians,between white Australians and Europeans/Americans,and between white Australians and Asians/Chinese.When reflected in Winton’s works,these conflicts are embodied via the dynamic construction of his characters.His protagonists(mainly white male characters)are initially proud of the glorious achievements of their forebears,yet later experience disillusion when they discover that the national myth is built upon colonial oppression of the aborigines.In contrast,when facing Europeans,his protagonists experience a displacement of their national masculine identity,namely,with that of self-abasement or a cultural cringe(in A.A.Phillips’ s words).Similarly,his protagonists exhibit anxious feelings towards America.On the one hand,they admire the superpower that is America,and are eager to become the same or to even surpass it,while on the other hand,they are afraid of being symbolically castrated or assimilated in the process of following in America’s footsteps.This national masculine anxiety can also be found in Winton’s male protagonists when they encounter Asians,the coming of whom to Australia echoes the policies of multiculturalism and globalization.For one,white Australians benefit significantly from economic globalization,which increases their national pride.Yet at the same time,they panic about the increasing influence of Asia upon Australia.The national anxiety of white Australians is externalized in three forms by Winton’s male characters,namely,in xenophobia,in the fear of an economic invasion by Asia,and in the anxiety of losing political independence.Winton’s writings about Australian national masculine anxiety enables us to understand Australia as a settler colony and the national character of white Australians,providing us with a literary perspective to understand the foreign policy of today’s Australia towards Europe,America and China.The conclusion summarizes the discoveries made by studying masculinity in Winton’s works and reveals their cultural implications.Firstly,the reason that Winton subverts masculinity/femininity and blurs the gender border is that he is interested in presenting the ambiguity of masculinity.In other words,ambiguity is not only a literary technique,but also an important attribute of masculinity.The criteria of judging masculinity in the traditional sense,whether by the virility displayed via physical strength,or qualities such as bravery,toughness,fearlessness or a sense of duty,should not be taken as the yardstick to distinguish men from women.Rather,they are the embodiment of human nature.Likewise,sensitivity,intuition and aesthetic appreciation should not be regarded as the exclusive attributes of women.Secondly,Winton’s representations of Australian working-class masculinity and national masculine anxiety reveal the instability,plurality and complexity of masculinity.To be more specific,with the increase of transnational travel in the era of globalization,people characterized by different classes and national masculinities encounter one another.In this process,the original local gender arrangement is disrupted,which anticipates a conflict between different powers,productive relations and historical cultures.Therefore,as Winton suggests,it is necessary to place any analysis of masculinity in its historical setting.Last but not least,Winton reveals the complicit relationships between traditional masculinity,patriarchy and racism,and also implies that not all aspects of traditional masculinity are negative.Overall,this dissertation holds that rather than erasing gender differences,Winton’s subversion of masculinity/femininity appeals to us to respect the personality of individuals and their existential value,by admitting the similarity of human nature.