‘Only another man’: Homosociality in Jane Campion’s Bright Star and The Power of the Dog

Abstract

This chapter engages with the central male figures in Campion’sBright Star (2009) and The Power of the Dog (2021). While Bright Star focuses on the tensions between the spaces accorded to men and women in a patriarchal world, Bowler argues that in The Power of the Dog, Campion poses questions about the effect of competing masculinities in a fiercely heteronormative and brutalising environment in which the hegemonic masculinity of the film’s period admits no variation in its structural organisation. This, then, denies any validation to alternative masculinities and sexualities, or indeed any inclusion of ‘the feminine’ within men’s lives. More broadly, Bowler argues, The Power of the Dog, Campion’s first film released post-#MeToo, provides an opportune moment to consider those aspects of Campion’s work that address men and masculinity, in light of her perceived role as feminist auteur intent on championing women’s stories. Bowler suggests that Campion’s work provides a rich tapestry of male figures and contentious masculinities alongside her female protagonists, suggesting that Campion’s male figures often reveal the networks through which hegemonic masculinity operates and underpins the delimitation of women’s self-exploration, their articulation as speaking subjects, and their creativity (via institutions of family, society, and heterosexual romance).