A City without Order: Violent American Masculinity in the Dirty Harry series, 1960s – 1970s
Abstract:
I examine the morphology of the Frontier hero as he transitions from the West to the modern urban environment, focusing on Harry Callahan of the Dirty Harry series. The associations between the hero’s transitioning morphology and the society’s relationship to the hero are examined to prove that the so-called Silent Majority of the 1970s found solace in embracing this hero. Some of the issues from hero-worship are: non-differentiation between real and fictional information, a double-bind in masculinity, a crisis in gender identity, a fantasy of regeneration through violence, death as a commodity, and the mockery of liberal social values. This paper then seeks to prove that in contemporary society, the aforesaid side effects are an effect of a duelist model of identification. Finally, a poststructuralist paradigm for self is presented as a means for transcending the current version of the traditional values of the mythical hero. Instead of mythical hero worship and blood ritual worship, we can go into nature itself to seek regeneration and self-realization.