The Dispersion of Masculinities: Fragments of Masculinity in Fast, Cheap & Out of
Control (1997) and Grizzly Man (2005)
Terrance McDonald, Brock University
Keywords: masculinities, violence, subjectivities, immanence, reterritorialization,
deterritorialization, Deleuze, Kimmel
The frustrations, anxiety, and anger of the contemporary, American, white male have been
well documented by sociologists, which has led the conclusion that these conditions are the
cause of an increase in the modes of masculine violence (e.g., Kimmel 2006, 2008, 2013).
While, generally, it is possible to hypothesize that men are increasingly violent as a result of
current societal shifts, this paper aims to move beyond the common tracings of external and
internal male violence towards the mapping of alternative formations of masculinities. The
average American male may be aggravated and aggressive, yet the subjects of Errol Morris’s
Fast, Cheap & Out of Control and Werner Herzog’s Grizzly Man are detached from these
violent tendencies. This paper, through philosophies of immanence, analyzes these subjects
reterritorialization, which is to say a dispersion of masculinities away from common
territories of masculinity. Are these men eccentrics? How do they define their existence? Is
there still a tendency towards violence present in their behavior? Through these questions, I
intend to open up a discussion of our contemporary notions of masculinity in order to
beginning thinking about masculinities in transformation. What is at stake is the
understanding of masculinities beyond masculinity defined by violence. By examining the
masculinities in these documentaries as fragments, broken off from popular structures of
masculinity, this paper opens up new ways to consider what masculinities have yet to
become.
Black boys in White Dominated Spaces: Pushing the Diversity and Inclusion
Envelope in Canada
Funke Oba, Wilfrid Laurier University
Keywords: Black masculinity, critical race theory, essentialism, cultural capital, criminalized
defiance
Equating criminality with black masculinity in western society perpetuates “othering” of
black males and denial of their immense cultural capital. Against the backdrop of prevailing
anti-black masculinity discourses, I problematize binaries that juxtapose black masculinity
and Canadian culture. Using critical race theory I illustrate the connections between
experiences of intersecting oppressions of gender and race and alienation, resistance and
defiance among black male youth. I encourage questioning of hegemonic discourses and
critical analysis of how state systems and structures turn black male bodies into criminals. I
conclude the paper by urging feminists, educators, academics, activists and in particular the
media and judiciary to critically rethink the essentialization and reductionism of black
masculinity.
The ’Hood’ Chronotope, Remediation, and Materialist Cultural Criticism
John McCullough, associate professor, York University
Keywords: chronotope, space, urban, materialism, popular culture
In Black City Cinema, Paula Massood uses Mikhail Bakhtin’s concept of the chronotope to
characterize the ways in which images of African American culture in popular film are
structured by conventions and stereotypes that are associated with distinct historical
conjunctures organized around specific spaces and geographies. Her theorization of the
‘hood’ chronotope is particularly illuminating in relationship to a variety of international
films and tv series that have emerged since the 1990s, around the world, and which are
reinforced by a variety of intertextual references to the source artifacts that Massood
analyzes. My research focuses on the ways in which the ‘hood’ chronotope is geographically
mobile and, because of its ability to be dispersed across national borders, is capable of
providing an important interdisciplinary critical perspective on global capitalism and the
production and meaning of spaces in neoliberalism. Citing examples from Brazilian films
that portray underclass struggles in favelas, French films that represent the dispossessed
populations of les banlieues, North American aboriginal films and tv series that depict the
‘urban reserve,’ and David Simon’s work on crime, policing and citizenship in West
Baltimore since the late-1980s, this presentation discusses the relationship between the
chronotope, remediation, and materialist critique. While it is inspired by the foundational
insights of Bakhtin and Massood, the paper also refers to work by a variety of scholars to
develop a thesis that calls attention to the continued importance of the aesthetics of realism
in popular, activist and radical culture. Finally, I will also draw attention to the fact that,
while the chronotope has found fertile ground in cinema studies, the same cannot be said of
television studies and this type of containerization of scholarship illuminates another
important perspective on the conference theme, in which we see disciplinary boundaries
interfering with the dispersion of knowledge and research.