"It All Fell in on Him": Masculinities in Raymond Carver's Short Stories and American Culture during the 1970s and 1980s.

This article locates Carver's stories in the context of discourses of masculinity predominant in American culture during the 1970s and 1980s. During these decades, traditional constructions of masculinity were increasingly questioned, creating spaces for alternative forms of masculinity. This essay also locates a transformation in representations of masculinity in Carver's oeuvre: representations of masculinity in crisis are transformed in later stories into alternate constructions of masculinity characterized by optimism and growth. This essay concludes that Carver's stories provide a window into the intense gender conflict of these decades. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]