Där män är män? maskulina subjektspositioner i Michael Moorcocks fantasyromaner
The aim of this Masters thesis is to examine subject positions of masculinity in the fantasy novels by Michael Moorcock, spanning from the sixties to the present. Questions are: Which positions of masculinity dominate in four fantasy works by Michael Moorcock? How do these positions differ from each other or are there similarities? Do they strengthen or undermine the hegemonic masculinity? How do these positions of masculinity relate to historic configurations of masculinity? In order to find feasible answers to these questions I have used a theoretical and methodological approach rooted in the sociology of literature, mens studies and discourse analysis. Different masculinities are defined as subject positions. The hegemonic masculinity is defined as the image of masculinity that dominate and that every man has to relate to, in one way or another. Other masculinities such as the marginalised, the oppositional etc. are tied to this hegemony. I have contextualized these different subject positions by using and contrasting different historical contexts. History shows that there has been a struggle against the hegemony from different strata of society. The result shows that a radical, oppositional masculinity dominates in two works from 1963 and 1991. The oppositional masculinity is also predominant in the book from 1971 but it is not unchallenged. There is something of a shift of paradigm after the millennium. The book written in 2001 is dominated by a hegemonic masculinity. The conclusions drawn from this are that the political edge of the character Elric that one can find in the earlier books vanishes in the book published in 2001.