Inspire, Expire: Masculinity, Mortality and Meaning in Tim Winton's Breath.
Journal of Men, Masculinities and Spirituality 2010, June, 4, 2
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Publisher Description
Tim Winton's latest novel and winner of the Miles Franklin award Breath (2009) is investigated here within a framework of theistic existentialism alongside a critique of masculinities in the Australian context. This novel presents a particular take on hegemonic masculinity and this dovetails neatly, I argue, with a continuum of spiritual consciousness and responsiveness drawn up by Danish creative writer and theological maverick, Soren Kierkegaard (1811-1855). Representations of the spiritual in Winton's body of work have become increasingly eclectic and existentialist as he seeks to undermine "that pompousness that comes with the church becoming a multinational firm" (quoted in Hawley, 1991, p. 15). Here I will demonstrate a correlation between the lives of the characters in Breath and characteristics of people at Kierkegaard's three realms of existence: The Aesthetic, The Ethical and the Religious, otherwise known as Stages on Life's Way (1845). Kierkegaard's model seems fitting for Winton's work, in its inherent hope and possibility that characters will move along the continuum away from the Aesthetic realm.