“How Cool Was Will Freeman?”: From the New Lad to the Postfeminist Man in High Fidelity and About a Boy
“How Cool Was Will Freeman?”: From the New Lad to the Postfeminist Man in High Fidelity and About a Boy

Summary/Abstract: This article aims to investigate the concept of contemporary masculinities reflected in two of Nick Hornby’s novels belonging to the popular fiction genre and generally associated with the New Lad phenomenon. The novelty of the approach resides in the attempt to demonstrate that the protagonists of such novels carry with them the seeds of a transition process to the twenty-first century Postfeminist Man seeking to overcome the traumatic experiences of the past and to embrace the diversity and hybridity of the present. As a consequence, both Rob Fleming in High Fidelity and Will Freeman in About a Boy become exponents not only of the masculinity crisis at the turn of the new millennium, but also of a more flexible paradigm that allows them to acknowledge the failure of the New Lad phenomenon. When outer agents like Laura and Marcus shatter their defensive mechanisms, they can no longer cling to the self-ironical complacency and non- commitment policy of the New Lad. In other words, Rob Fleming and Will Freeman begin to reflect the image of the Postfeminist Free Man who is willing to accept the successive feminist waves and relearn the value of genuine interpersonal relationships to the detriment of a continuous obsession over the concepts of power, hierarchy and gender roles.

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