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Realism’s Gender Wars: Masculinity Effects in Late Realist Fiction and Contemporary Reality TV
- Author(s):
- Susan Fraiman (see profile)
- Date:
- 2022
- Item Type:
- Article
- Tag(s):
- realism, Jack London, reality TV, Man vs. Wild, gender and narrative
- Permanent URL:
- https://doi.org/10.17613/4ee8-zg89
- Abstract:
- Who gets “The Real” in realism, and what difference does gender make? Countering monolithic (and dismissive) notions of realism, I explore the competition between realisms coded as “feminine” and “masculine”—between what Frank Norris belittled as “the drama of a broken teacup” and the drama of a man struggling to survive in the wilderness. Juxtaposing Jack London’s Klondike fiction with today’s survivalist reality shows, I see these as similar efforts to put a masculine stamp on “the real.” In my reading of the History Channel’s Alone (2015- ), however, a London-esque realism of moose-killing is challenged by a realism of the daily, non-dire, and domestic. Alone’s oscillation between these modes recalls that Ur-text of literary realism in which a violent, shipwrecked man sets about reinventing the household arts.
- Metadata:
- xml
- Published as:
- Journal article
- Status:
- Published
- Last Updated:
- 9 months ago
- License:
- Attribution
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alh-realisms-gender-wars.pdf