Pornography, panopticism and gender: off-scene masculinities in The Pornographer's Poem

This thesis examines the construction of masculinity and sexuality in Michael Turner's The Pornographer's Poem. Drawing on a performative and fluid conception of gender identity, it explores how panoptic structures like the family, school, and athletics all help to shape masculinity. Significant attention is given to the interaction between hegemonic and subversive masculinities and sexualities. In this context, the protagonist's pornographies serve as a focal lens through which to inquire into these gender dynamics. The instabilities in identitarian processes are likewise reflected in unreliable narration, cyclical structures, interrogative discourses, and nesting techniques as they influence the act of narration. The thesis concludes that coercive, conflicting, complicated images of masculinity propagating in contemporary culture are difficult to navigate, especially without effective attachment figures. It attempts to propose more nuanced, multifarious, and dynamic interpretations of manhood that allow to transcend societal stereotypes and prescriptions arising from current systems of power and gender. --Leaf ii.