The Representations of the Multiple Masculinities in Kate Atkinson's Life after Life and A God in Ruins

Abstract

This MA- thesis focuses on the representations of masculinities in Kate Atkinson’s novels Life after Life (2013) and A God in Ruins (2015) using masculinity and men’s studies as the theoretical approaches into the analysis. The aim of the study is to show how there are multiple masculinities and how the patriarchal structuring of society that places men above women is not beneficial for all men. All men are not equal regarding their masculinities nor does society appreciate all representations of masculinity equally. In fact, it is shown how especial.ly traditional masculinity can have negative effects on men and toxic masculinities on women. The theoretical background relies significantly on the works of R. W. Connell, as well as several others that have had an impact on the area of research during the recent years masculinity and men’s studies has been on the surface. These works provide the framework for the multiple masculinities examined in the thesis and provide evidence to the multiplicity of the subject. Patriarchal society and the limiting and slowly changing molds of masculinities are not beneficial to women nor men and the structures of society and the environment provided causes aggression and violence among men. Masculinity and men’s studies remains a controversial point of study and the study of men needs to be justified still. For these reasons it is all the more vital that this type of research is done and the attitudes towards men and masculinities is changed in order to gain equality among men as well as among men and women.