Crisis and Masculinity on Contemporary Cable Television: Tracing the Western Hero in Breaking Bad, The Walking Dead and Hell on Wheels

Doctoral Thesis / Dissertation from the year 2014 in the subject American Studies - Culture and Applied Geography, grade: magna cum laude, Dresden Technical University, language: English, abstract: Both the crisis of masculinity and quality TV have been popular discourses in academia in recent years. Many of these contemporary quality TV series feature male anti-heroes at the center of their narratives. This dissertation argues that the constructions of masculinity in series such as Breaking Bad and The Walking Dead are informed by the Western hero. Furthermore, the dissertation links this recourse to an arguably outmoded model of masculinity to recent crisis tendencies in the USA, most notably the recent economic downturn and the aftermath of September 11 2001. Moreover, the return of the Western hero can be understood as a process of remasculinization in light of the crisis of masculinity.