Examining American Identity and Its Relationship to Masculinity in Patricia Highsmith’s The Talented Mr. Ripley.

機関リポジトリ Web Site

この論文をさがす

説明

In 1950s America, a domestic optimism related to the post-war economic boom and an increasing middle class was tempered by fears of external threats from the Cold War. This led to a national ideology placing particular import on the heteronormative family unit and, conversely, an othering of those who did not fit this national identity. Through the characters of Patricia Highsmith’s novel, The Talented Mr. Ripley, released in the middle of the decade, ideas of homosociality, heteronormative behaviour and masculinity are examined in the context of American identity. Michael Kimmel’s archetypes of American masculinity are discussed, along with queer theory and Eve Sedgwick’s continuum of male relations between the homosocial and the homosexual to explore the relations between the novel’s protagonist, Tom Ripley and his friend, Dickie Greenleaf. The paper concludes that it was the pressure to portray an obligatory heterosexual masculinity as a young American man that led to Tom Ripley murdering his friend as their homosocial bond was irrevocably destroyed after Ripley failed to maintain the version of masculinity that American society of the era demanded.

収録刊行物

  • 総合政策研究

    総合政策研究 32 107-116, 2024-03-25

    中央大学総合政策学部

キーワード

詳細情報 詳細情報について

問題の指摘

ページトップへ