The Study On "Masculinity" In Annie Proulx’s Novels

The image of cowboys in literary and artistic works has always been talked about as "heroes".This cultural identity has undergone a series of processes in production,narrative and construction in the works of the western United States,forming a solid and single hegemonic masculinity.Anne Proulx has broken this singular identification and rewritten the identity and temperament of the cowboy in the work.This kind of breakthrough writing is concentrated in the historical transformation of the cowboy from the heroic image to the anti-hero image.The mainstream American culture represented by the cowboy are dispelled and it becomes synonymous with the edge culture.The gender framework of the male-headed has disappeared,and the homosexual cultural identity of the cowboy is in opposition to the male cultural hegemony.In addition,the ugly and weird traits embodied in Proulx’s cowboys writing further smashed the image of the cowboy’s integrity,kindness and beauty.The introduction part of this paper mainly introduces the research status of Annie Proulx’s works of domestic and overseas and the research methods of the thesis.The first chapter analyzes the cultural origins,regional factors and forms of hegemonic masculinity in traditional western works.The traditional western novels construct the characteristics of historical subjectivity,mainstream cultural attributes,male-standard characteristics,and beautiful artistic features of cowboys.It also constructs people’s cognition of cowboy image in the general sense.The second chapter analyzes the breakthrough writing of the temperament of the hegemonic man’s temperament from the sociological significance.The historical subjectivity of the cowboy image is replaced,and the mainstream cultural attributes of the cowboy are degraded,which becomes a kind of marginal cultural symbol.The male-centered politics attached to the image of the cowboy has also been deconstructed,and the cowboy has become a spokesperson for sexual orientation and gender equality.The third chapter analyzes Proulx’s breakthrough writing from the aesthetic point of view.The cowboy once became the embodiment of beauty,strength and justice.In Proulx’s work,it becomesthe incarnation of ugly and weird traits,which forms a grotesque art in the text.The fourth chapter summarizes the causes and influences of Proulx male temperament writing,which is from the cowboy’s aphasia in industrial civilization,the identity crisis of marginal culture and the re-deconstruction of masculinity.The conclusion part summarizes the full-text view and sorts out the change process of the western cowboy image and the process of male temperament transformation,which proves that the unique artistic charm of Anne Proulx’s western works and makes it unique in the history of American literature.