Willie, Waylon, and Me: Mythopoetic Narratives in Outlaw Country Music

The primary objective of this thesis is to analyze the role of masculinity in Outlaw country music as part of a constantly changing ideal of American manhood. The secondary objective is to understand the distinct southern affiliation inherent in Outlaw country music and how that related to the movement. Accordingly, this thesis represents an effort at continuing the larger historiographical development generated by the introduction of men’s studies into contemporary scholarship. The analysis of masculinity within a historical framework provides a chance to examine factors that shape cultural perceptions of society and the individual’s place within it. Scholars of men’s studies point out that the quest for manhood represented a formative and persistent experience in American men’s lives. Moreover, American masculinity is neither timeless nor static; rather it represents a constantly changing set of definitions and relationships between men and the world around them. In this context, the social and musical culture that grew out of Outlaw music represented a mythopoetic male movement that arose during a period of social, cultural and political change.