Down Eros, Up Mars! The Post-masculine in William Wyler’s Films
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.31261/SSP.2020.15.09Keywords:
William Wyler, masculinity in cinema, homosexuality in film, ideology in cinema, biopoliticsAbstract
The article speaks to the deconstruction of men’s images in William Wyler’s films. One may observe a different paradigm of what is male in the said director’s pacifist trilogy. The alternative masculinity utopias constructed therein are quite awe-inducing due to their emancipatory scope. Friendly Persuasion (1956), The Big Country, and Ben-Hur (1959) are films depicting not only the fight against patriarchal stereotype, but also reaching beyond the restrictions of heteronormativity. The libidal coordinates of the narratives are in sync with biopolitical status of modernity. Surprisingly enough, at the heart of Hollywood some brave cinematic post-masculine projects were developed.
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