Palgrave Macmillan Studies in Family and Intimate Life

McNulty Norton, Denise

This book maps father failure and redemption through three decades of Hollywood family films, revealing how libertarian notions that align agency with autonomy lead to new conflicts for the contemporary father. The films find resolution to these conflicts through a re-gendering of parenting as relationship. In their creation of a ‘pure’ fatherhood that is valorised as authentic for its lack of parental responsibilities, the films serve to challenge the perception that fathering enacted outside the nuclear family structure is fragile. McNulty Norton finds in the films a new essentialism that secures the pure relationship to the biological father, reinforcing his position in the face of changing family forms.

Details

Published by: Palgrave Macmillan

Publication Date: 2021-07-21

Format: Hardcover

ISBN-13: 9783030716479

DOI: 10.1007/978-3-030-71648-6

Dimensions: 210cm x148cm

Pages: 198