An Analysis of Amory Blaine’s Affective Masculinity in Scott Fitzgerald’s This Side of Paradise

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 PhD Candidate, English Department, Razi University, Kermanshah, Iran.

2 Assistant Professor, English Department, Faculty of Letters and Humanities, Razi University, Kermanshah, Iran.

10.34785/J014.2023.002

Abstract

In the early decades of the twentieth century, masculinity created a tangled network of man-woman connections centered on power and control. Additionally, how a man formed relationships was very significant in enhancing his public persona. Scott Fitzgerald’s fiction articulates this complicated and contentious historiography of masculinity and its linkages to the era’s literary tradition. This paper proceeds toward masculinity studies to demonstrate the representation of affective masculinity in Fitzgerald’s This Side of Paradise (1920). The authors argue that Deleuze’s concept of “affect” and its relation to modern discourses of masculinity would enhance our perception of Fitzgerald’s construction of masculinity in his debut novel. The paper analyzes the affective transformation of Amory Blaine as a new man based on his interactions with the female characters of the story. The results of the research show that in Fitzgerald’s definition of masculinity, man is affected and enhanced by the gentle feminine features, and Amory Blaine too acquires a new identity for himself.

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Critical Literary Studies
Volume 5, Issue 1 - Serial Number 9
January 2023
Pages 15-29

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History

  • Receive Date: 21 January 2022
  • Revise Date: 31 January 2022
  • Accept Date: 10 October 2022

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