Mailer’s Modern Myth

Re-examining Violence and Masculinity in An American Dream

Authors

  • Maggie McKinley Harper College Author

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.68910/fmm0fa20

Keywords:

An American Dream, literary masculinity, gender and representation, violence

Abstract

Mailer’s An American Dream reveals some of the most frustrating but also the most fascinating representations of gender in contemporary American fiction. This essay illuminates the ways in which Mailer himself interrogates violence in his own work, exploring its nuances and consequences nearly as often as he extols it as an essential aspect of masculinity.

Author Biography

  • Maggie McKinley, Harper College

    Maggie McKinley is a Professor of English and Honors Program Co-Coordinator at Harper College. She is the author of Masculinity and the Paradox of Violence in American Fiction, 1950-1975 (Bloomsbury Press, 2015), Understanding Norman Mailer (University of South Carolina Press, 2017), and The Art of Looking Back: Joan Didion and American Nostalgia (Louisiana State University Press, 2026). She is also the editor of the Cambridge collections Philip Roth in Context (2021) and Norman Mailer in Context (2021). She previously served as President of the Norman Mailer Society, and is currently an Executive Co-Editor of the peer-reviewed journal Philip Roth Studies. 

The Mailer Review v.16: 20 Years of the Review

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Published

2026-11-04

Issue

Vol. 16 (2026): Special Edition: 20 Years of the Review

Section

I. Monument to Method: Ideology, Gender, and the Cultural Stakes of Mailer

How to Cite

McKinley, Maggie. “Mailer’s Modern Myth: Re-Examining Violence and Masculinity in An American Dream”. The Mailer Review, vol. 16, no. 1, Nov. 2026, pp. 3–14, https://doi.org/10.68910/fmm0fa20.