Absolutely toxic : a study on representations of masculinity in selected works by Hubert Selby Jr.

Abstract

Hubert Selby Jr’s writing emerged from post-war New York and presented the American urban male as a figure of violence, rage, and toxic character. Through a close look at James R. Giles’ ‘Understanding Hubert Selby Jr’, among other studies, the dissertation explores the notion of the male as toxic within Last Exit to Brooklyn, and in stories like ‘Strike’, ‘Tralala’ and ‘The Queen is Dead’. Throughout the dissertation, I conduct an analysis of the recurring male character, Harry, who represents Selby’s ‘everyman’. In addition, the study focuses on R.W Connell’s theory in Masculinities, arguing for more inclusive terms recognising homosexual and transgender members of society. Moreover, the study narrows in on the way toxicity is at times subsumed in the author’s later work, such as ‘Song of the Silent Snow’, ‘The Willow Tree’, ‘The Demon’, and ‘Waiting Period’, hence, mapping a journey from the transgressive to the transcendental qualities of Selby’s fiction. Before concluding, I note the transition male protagonists undertake imbuing them with both toxicity and vulnerability. With this shift in mind, reference is made to Josephine P. Hendin’s, ‘Vulnerable People’, which provides a clear depiction of anguish in American post-war literature outlining the glaring divide between the strength and weakness of the male characters created in the era.