Ying-ru, Lu. “Feminizing The Masculine Body In Carson Mccullers’S The Ballad Of The Sad Cafe”. Journal Of Literature And Art Studies, vol 8, no. 10, 2018. David Publishing Company, doi:10.17265/2159-5836/2018.10.002.
This article is written with the intention to analyze the use and the application of the feminine and masculine language and imagery in The Ballad Of The Sad Café. In particular, it tackles the ways gender normativity and specific perceptions apply to the body that is placed in the center of the narration. Furthermore, it comments on the story’s exploration of the relationships between gender-conforming and gender-nonconforming people through the lens of marriage, sex, and uneven social power. The introductory paragraph lists some of the foundational theories in relation to the gender binary in modern society. The concepts of sex, gender, masculine and feminine as recognized by the modern social sciences are brought up by the author for the later application to the story in question. The author brings particular attention to the potential of disconnect between gender and sex, and the ways in which said disconnect can be expressed.
Then, the article proceeds to apply the concepts from the introduction to the main character of The Ballad Of The Sad Café. Her name is Amelia, and she is a masculine-looking and masculine-presenting brewery owner. The article goes over the signs and expressions of Amelia’s gender non-conformity in detail. Quotations mention the discourse that she generates around herself by the virtue of body type, clothes, facial expressions, movements, and behavioral patterns. It then follows to depict the disconnect that the gender-conforming society experiences when another character, a handsome and successful man named Macy, prefers Amelia to feminine girls that swarm him.
The article highlights the topics of patriarchy and heteronormativity analyzing Amelia’s unease in her marriage to Macy and his lack of success in attempts to have sexual intercourse with her. It examines the original short story step by step, establishing the links between the fictional narrative and the scientific basis of historical gender relations. It presents a literature review of sorts, discussing the ways in which the themes stated in the introductory paragraph form the core of the story. It is therefore symbolic that the article is published under the Literature Studies section of the source journal. In a fitting manner, it concludes with a short list of references to the papers on the gender binary, sociological connotations of marriage, and The Ballad Of The Sad Café itself.
The article was published in the Journal of Literature And Arts Studies in October 2018, still counting as a relevant piece of research in the literary studies field. This journal covers a variety of liberal arts-centered fields, also publishing culture studies and language studies works. It is a credible, widely distributed publication, and the article opening its Literature Studies section is a sign of its exceptional quality. The author masterfully utilizes their modern knowledge of gender theory and body sociology to conceptualize the themes of the 1951 piece for the modern reader. The only potential critique of the article might come down to the lack of the historical context discussion, which is not present at all. With Carson’s book being published in the middle of the XX century, and Carson herself coming from the patriarchal American South, greater attention to gender history would benefit the article. The focus article, therefore, provides a general analysis of the story themes from the perspective of the gender binary, without elaborating on the evolution of this area of social science.