A return to form? Postmasculinist television drama and tragic heroes in the wake of The Sopranos

Abstract

The paper considers The Wire in the light of the critical discourse around The Sopranos and with reference to Deadwood, Mad Men, and Sons of Anarchy. The aim is to argue that, collectively, these works might be categorised as ‘postmasculinist television drama’, analogous to the grouping of shows such as Ally McBeal and Sex and the City under the rubric of postfeminism. Like this latter category, postmasculinist dramas can be interpreted as displaying an ambiguous/ambivalent relation not just towards feminism but to other twentieth-century movements that were concerned with the de-centring of the normative, white masculine subject. Focusing primarily on issues of gender and medium, genre and form, the contention is that all these dramas create fictional worlds dominated by misogyny, homophobia, and racism whilst (apparently) establishing ‘ironic distance’ from these attitudes. Following up claims to the status of ‘tragedy’ made by, or for, all these works, this argument is developed by reading them in relation to early modern Revenge Tragedy. This suggests that, ultimately, they re-inscribe and reclaim for contemporary (white) masculinity the position of the (anti)-hero/subject as constructed by canonical tragedy, and defined in terms of the experience of existential ‘crisis’.

Keywords:

• postmasculinist
• tragedy
• The Sopranos
• The Wire
• melodrama

Acknowledgements

The genesis of this paper owes a debt to Dr Kathryn Whittaker's ‘Representing the “Crisis” in Masculinity: British and North American Playwrights 1900–2005’ (Dissertation, Lancaster University 2010). Thanks are also due to Kier Ashcroft for her insightful comments on the paper.

Notes

1. For a more detailed summary of these debates, see Hollows and Moseley 2008, 7–16.

2. In his discussion of The Sopranos, Creeber (2004, 107–8) compares it favourably with The Singing Detective. Given more space, I might argue for this text as an ‘ur’ postmasculinist television drama.

3. For criticism, see, for example, Mattessi 2003.

4. SAMCRO stands for the full club title: Sons of Anarchy Motorcycle Club, Redwood Original.

5. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.

6. In season 1, Betty Draper attends analysis with an astonishingly sexist therapist. It is important to note, however, that these sessions confirm her own lack of systemic understanding of her situation.

7. Lippman a reporter turned successful (feminist) crime novelist, made a brief appearance in season 5 and is also David Simon's partner.

8. See, for example, the penultimate episode of season 3, the final meeting between Stringer Bell and Avon Barksdale, which contains some (almost) direct quotes from Godfather 1.

9. This ‘backlash’ is (amongst other things) often seen as tied up with the rise of syphilis but also a reaction to the reign of Elizabeth I and the relative empowerment of aristocratic women in terms of education in this period. It might also been seen to prefigure the seventeenth-century witch trials. For a range of readings, see Simkin 2001.