Dramatising a Vicious Circle of the United States’ Hypermasculine Politics: Christopher Shinn’s Dying City
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What current political mechanism perpetuates conditions of warfare? What does masculinity mean in a political context? What is its structure and function as hegemony within the contemporary context? Why is the concept of hegemonic hypermasculinity crucial for understanding contemporary global politics focused on America? This paper explores these questions through the analysis of Christopher Shinn’s Dying City written in 2007 when the US’s post-9/11 military and foreign policies—the US’s policy of War on Terror, the invasion of Afghanistan (2001) and the War in Iraq (2003-2011)—were globalised. Building upon Bonnie Mann’s critiques of sovereign masculinity, Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick’s concept of ‘male homosociality’, and Brian Massumi’s theory of ‘preemption,’ this paper discusses how Shinn’s Dying City reveals entrapments and consequences of American hypermasculine politics in the aftermath of 9/11 through the exploration of relationships of the characters: twin brothers Craig and Peter, and Craig’s wife, Kelly. This paper first analyses characters, particularly how their connections illustrate the formation of toxic hypermasculinity. Secondly, it examines Shinn’s theatrical ways of embodying hegemonic hypermasculinity perpetuated by American foreign policies and its detrimental effects upon individuals and nations in Dying City. This paper ultimately contends that Dying City reveals the foundational construction and interrelation of hegemonic hypermasculinity within personal, societal, and national identity, hence functioning as a political mechanism of American global politics.
Abstract
What current political mechanism perpetuates conditions of warfare? What does masculinity mean in a political context? What is its structure and function as hegemony within the contemporary context? Why is the concept of hegemonic hypermasculinity crucial for understanding contemporary global politics focused on America? This paper explores these questions through the analysis of Christopher Shinn’s Dying City written in 2007 when the US’s post-9/11 military and foreign policies—the US’s policy of War on Terror, the invasion of Afghanistan (2001) and the War in Iraq (2003-2011)—were globalised. Building upon Bonnie Mann’s critiques of sovereign masculinity, Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick’s concept of ‘male homosociality’, and Brian Massumi’s theory of ‘preemption,’ this paper discusses how Shinn’s Dying City reveals entrapments and consequences of American hypermasculine politics in the aftermath of 9/11 through the exploration of relationships of the characters: twin brothers Craig and Peter, and Craig’s wife, Kelly. This paper first analyses characters, particularly how their connections illustrate the formation of toxic hypermasculinity. Secondly, it examines Shinn’s theatrical ways of embodying hegemonic hypermasculinity perpetuated by American foreign policies and its detrimental effects upon individuals and nations in Dying City. This paper ultimately contends that Dying City reveals the foundational construction and interrelation of hegemonic hypermasculinity within personal, societal, and national identity, hence functioning as a political mechanism of American global politics.