Supernatural post 9-11 :masculinity, fandom and hybrid narrative -

Abstract

This thesis exposes the ways in which Supernatural, a cult TV series about two brothers travelling across the United States to hunt evil, formulates and subverts aspects of the ‘revitalized’ idealistic masculinity that is a product of the sense of anxiety and fear produced by the attacks, through following the melodramatic qualities of the media’s reaction to 9-11. The intimate relationship between the protagonists of the show, Sam and Dean Winchester, prevents the stabilization of the masculine identity despite its existence in the masculine narrative of Supernatural. The hyper masculine is subverted in the narrative to display an intricate play of power and gender structures which is exposed in the series through the use of moralistic oppositions that are a result of the 9-11 attacks. Due to the depictions of masculinity, complicated by the intrusion of a feminine perspective through the fandom’s intense participation, the masculine narrative of Supernatural becomes further complicated. Additionally, the hybridization of the road narrative genre with the gothic genre provides the story arc with more layers and complexities to be explored in relation to each other, and in how they affect the characters’ motives and interactions, discussed as a reaction to effects of 9-11. This thesis shows how all the above mentioned ideas interrelate, and feed each other to provide an understanding of American society’s anxieties, particularly post 9-11, and how the television medium can bring out these anxieties and, at significant points, provide resolution for the viewers as well as the series characters through the victim-hero trope.