Masculinities In Raymond Carver's Where I'm Calling From

As the most important short story writer since Ernest Hemingway,Raymond Carver makes great contributions to the revival of short fictions in America from the 1970 s to 1980 s.Carver has published five collections.Where I'm Calling from: New and Selected Stories(1988)is the only one which was published posthumously.This book contains some of his classic fictions and seven new stories,presenting us a panoramic view of Carver's creations.Termed as the observer and expresser of “tough times”,Carver depicts with poignancy and humor the despair,uncertainty and paralyzed life of the working poor,who are always beset by failed marriages,poverty and unemployment.Among those people,the male characters occupy important roles in his portrayal.Therefore,this thesis attempts to study the masculinities of those men in order to disclose the complex variations hidden behind them.Making use of the concept of hegemonic masculinity by R.W.Cornell,this thesis finds out that there exist three kinds of different variations developed out of hegemonic masculinity among the male characters in Where I'm Calling From.And those differences,in turn,result in further transformations and diversity of masculinities,which are respectively presented as toxic masculinity,marginalized masculinity and open masculinity.First,Carver depicts some men who have nostalgia for hegemonic masculinity despite the loss of it.When the male esteem gets challenged,those men exhibit toxic masculinity.Second,some men have lost the desire for hegemonic masculinity and become stagnant in finding more positive masculinity as a substitute when they are in crisis,so their masculinity has to be marginalized.Third,when the male characters get out of the imprisonment of hegemonic masculinity and turn to seek a new one without gender bias,they will develop open masculinity.Therefore,this thesis concludes that hegemonic masculinity which has been shaped as the ideal in patriarchal society has become a burden on men,so getting rid of it and pursuing more positive masculinity can release men from the traditional constraint and build more harmonious relationship with others and themselves.What's more,the diverse representations of masculinity not only display Carver's developing characterization,which is related to his personal experiences,but also reflect the masculinity transformations in America from the 1970 s to 1980 s.Thus,Carver's short stories provide us a window which help us better grasp the masculinity development of this period.