Yesterday Killed the Finook: Nostalgia, Masculinity, and Homosexuality in The Sopranos

Abstract

This thesis argues that nostalgia motivates and misleads the gangster characters depicted in David Chase’s The Sopranos (1999-2007). The thesis treats the series as a multimodal text and presents a close reading of four different episodes. The pilot episode creates a framework as for how to understand the mafia norms, before the analysis of three episodes from the sixth and final season discusses how the murder of the homosexual character Vito Spatafore (Joseph R. Gannascoli) can be seen as an example of how conservativism and idolizing what used to be makes the world less tolerant. The method is based on Trisha Dunleavy and Janina Wildfeuer’s theories of television drama, multimodal text analysis, and how to treat TV series as textual units. The thesis borrows its basic understanding of nostalgia from Stephanie Coontz’s The Way We Never Were, in which she argues that nostalgia tends to make people idolize a past that may never have existed. The thesis borrows theories on masculinity, and sexuality in American history and culture mainly from Anthony Rotundo, and Michael Kimmel. From its first season, The Sopranos depicts a male homosocial gangster business where its members are supposed to follow its norms. When one of these members turns out to be homosexual, it seems to put the entire organization in a sense of danger. Vito Spatafore’s revealed sexuality exposes the gangsters’ hostile attitudes towards homosexuality, but it also ignites questions of their own identity, tradition and norms. Tony Soprano (James Gandolfini), the protagonist and boss of the mafia family, finds himself torn between old norms and his more liberal approach to the issue. This thesis argues that his eventual decision to kill Vito is based on his associates’ nostalgic approach to norms and values. The thesis argues that father figures and previous gangster fiction are symbols of unapproachable male ideals as well as the gangster characters’ misleading nostalgia. The thesis shows how the gangster characters find themselves mirrored in nostalgic prisons of their own making, and how this turns out to be self-destructive. Further, the thesis works from the assumption that TV dramas reveal certain truths about the culture and society that produces them. Thereby, the thesis argues that The Sopranos has the potential to say something about contemporary American and western society.