It suggests that these stories constitute rape narratives, and argues that they critique their era’s dominant model of American masculinity that President Ronald Reagan embodied. Examining the ways in which ' What Is It? ' ' A Serious Talk, ' and other stories illustrate this dynamic, this presentation will suggest that the same ideal of self-reliant manhood that Trump aims to project provokes in Carver's men symbolic displays of power and authority that are as harmful as they are ineffectual.Ībstract This dissertation explores the connections between the literary representations of rape, blue-collar white men, and masculinity, in the 1980s works of Raymond Carver, Andre Dubus, and Denis Johnson. Carver repeatedly shows how the same social and economic anxieties that energize Trump supporters prompt toxic assertions of masculine privilege in the men of Carver country, rather than productive coping strategies. But if Carver's work can foster sympathy across the political divide in the Age of Trump, it also offers a critique of these men's behavior. Carver's work reminds readers that these are often ' decent men ' who have been dealt bad hands ' in a plentiful world ' and therefore ' behave badly ' (Weber 37): Doreen Ober's willingness to play along with Earl's diet scheme in ' They're Not Your Husband, ' for example, suggests her understanding that Earl is a victim of uncontrollable circumstances. Carver and Bukowski belonged to the same movement, but also present some differences as we should be able to prove at the end of this project.Ĭarver in the Age of Trump a valuable opportunity to consider the perspective of that demographic in detail. Both writers want to criticise the society where they lived. He wrote short stories, we can find in there characters who deal with their current problems but they do not know how to fix them.

Raymond Carver is the other writer we will approach. He tells his own life in the novels, he wrote and talked about his current problems by using an alter ego. Charles Bukowski is one of the writers whose work we will analyze.

Dirty Realism has as one of its goals to critique the postmodern society, nevertheless, it does not offer any political critique. It is not clear where Dirty Realism comes from, but it seems to be closer to American Naturalism. Its characters are not heroes, they are regular people who struggle with current life, its problems and challenges. Dirty Realism reaches readers mainly through the novel and short story. It aims at showing some of the worst aspects of Western society during the postmodern era. Dirty Realism is a literary movement which arose in the USA during the 70’s and 80’s.

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