Crisis of Masculinity in Modern English Fiction: A Thematic Exploration of Male Identity and Emotional Alienation

Abstract

This article investigates the crisis of masculinity in modern English fiction through a thematic analysis of male identity and emotional alienation. Drawing on a corpus of contemporary novels and short fiction, the study examines how male characters negotiate changing social, economic, and relational expectations in a post-industrial and post-feminist cultural landscape. The analysis identifies five dominant thematic patterns: fractured provider identity, emotional inarticulacy, intimacy breakdown, masculinity as surveillance and competition, and intersectional forms of shame. Together, these themes reveal masculinity as a precarious performance rather than a stable identity, sustained through emotional restraint, self-monitoring, and withdrawal from vulnerability. The findings demonstrate that emotional alienation is not merely an individual psychological condition but a culturally structured outcome of masculine norms that reward stoicism and autonomy while discouraging dependence and care. By situating literary representations alongside contemporary gender theory, the article argues that modern English fiction functions as a critical site for exposing the affective costs of hegemonic masculinity and for imagining, albeit tentatively, alternative modes of male emotional life and relational belonging.