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Abstract Postmodern gender theories have recorded a sense of crisis concerning the concept of masculinity. What it means to be a ”real” man is confusing. How to be a ”real” man is torturing. The root cause of the problem has been found to be the patriarchal culture that urges traditional masculinity. According to the rulebook of traditional masculinity, a ”real” man is economically efficient, is invulnerable and emotionally inexpressive, and is daring and violent. These definitions of ”real” manhood have resulted, according to sociological and psychoanalytical studies, in physiological and psychological damage to men. In racist, patriarchal societies, the black minority’s culture is part of the dominant patriarchal culture. As a result, it is influenced and shaped by the same concepts and definitions of masculinity. Just like any other male, the black male desires more than anything to reflect an image of ”acceptable” masculinity. He seeks power, control, and emotional and economical strength, regardless of the physiological and psychological suffering this would cause him. However, the black male’s suffering in a racist, patriarchal society is duplicated, for he does not only, like the white male, have to struggle to fulfill the definition of traditional masculinity, but he also has to wrestle with a social system that works hard to deprive him of power and, consequently, of the ability to fulfill the definition. The black male in a racist patriarchal society has to undergo the dilemma of racism as well as the dilemma of traditional masculinity.This thesis is a study of the dilemmas of black masculinity in the racist, patriarchal societies of South Africa and America as dramatized in the plays of athol fugard and august wilson. |