A critical analysis, of the representation of male characters in Bali Rai's Unarranged Marriage (2001) and Alan Gibbons' Caught in the Crossfire (2003)

• Main Author: Gilligan, Kim
• Published: University of Sunderland 2014
• Subjects: 823.92
• Online Access: http://ethos.bl.uk/OrderDetails.do?uin=uk.bl.ethos.616976

This thesis critically explores how the representation of male characters in two texts is reinforcing, shaping or challenging contemporary notions of masculine identities. The thesis draws extensively on sociological theory in order to exemplify the links between fictional texts and some key ideological positions relating to the globalisation in the real world contexts surrounding the texts. The thesis utilises discourses of globalisation, neoliberalism and masculinity to analyse fictional male characters and explores the nature of reflexivity and the formation of contemporary masculine identities. Two texts analysed are Caught in the Crossfire by Alan Gibbons (2003) and Unarranged Marriage by the British Asian author Bali Rai (2001). The two texts are analysed initially using grounded theory and then feminine critical discourse analysis is applied within the final stages of the analysis, emphasising the place of gender within the study. The findings are presented in two chapters and reveal the emergence of a masculine hierarchy related to levels of anxiety, cultural and social capital. The first analysis chapter presents characters that represent hegemonic male figures, individual who are highly reflexive. The second chapter presents the analysis of more marginalised, less reflexive males. The findings give an insight into how the desired subjectivities required by globalisation are represented in texts for young people and how they reveal the complexity of contemporary identities. The thesis utilises a range of sociological discourses to analyse fictional texts. It builds on previous work but extends this further by analysis of contemporary masculine identities in texts.