Existentialism And Racial Masculinity in Norman Mailer’s An American Dream

Abstract

Norman Mailer reflects on Ernest Hemingway's impact on his own writing in Advertisements for Myself, a compilation of quotes and essays. Even so, he recognizes that he has a deep-seated respect for his literary forebear and that Hemingway accomplished many things that few of us could. Mailer also believes that the author “pretended to be ignorant of the notion that it is not enough to feel like a man; one must try to think like a man as well” (20). Although this assessment of Hemingway is open to criticism, the statement's significance for a study of Mailer's writings lies more in its intention than in its accuracy since, by expressing this concern, Mailer implies that he will not pretend to ignore this problem. Indeed, Mailer devotes a significant portion of his writing career to examining what it means to "think like a man." Even though Mailer's portrayal of masculinity is contentious because it relies on a variety of violent forms, including political, misogynistic, and interpersonal violence, it does run the risk of legitimizing many of the repressive social structures that Mailer and his characters find so confining. Nevertheless, his body of work provides important insight into common problems of conflicted gendered identity in American culture. The purpose of this study is to shed light on the sometimes disregarded nuanced aspects of some of Mailer's most notorious depictions of masculinity. To be more precise, I look at how Mailer's portrayals of masculinity paradoxically uphold the oppressions he aims to subvert through the violent uprisings of his protagonists, as well as the instances in which Mailer questions these acts of violence and how they form gender identity.