Spatial parody, theatricalisation and constructions of ‘self’ in Patricia Highsmith’sThe Price of Salt and Carson McCullers’ The Ballad of the Sad Cafe

Piper, FL

Abstract

This essay considers the ways in which Highsmith and McCullers use theatricalisation of space to suspend the distinction between public and private as a defining trope in gender construction. Both texts, I argue, explore ‘transit’ as space/place that both resists and reinstates that public/private binary, through the use of what I term ‘spatial parody’. In The Price of Salt (1952) numerous cafes, restaurants and hotels provide a backdrop for the unfolding of a forbidden (lesbian) romance. In The Ballad of the Sad Café (1943) McCullers foregrounds the café itself and interrogates the relationship between ownership of space, gender performance and selfhood.

• Publication Date: Sep 1, 2013
• Deposit Date: Oct 15, 2013
• Publicly Available Date: Jan 23, 2020
• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
• Pages: 151-165
• Book Title: Women in Transit Through Literary Liminal Spaces
• ISBN: 9781137330468
• Keywords: Highsmith; McCullers; lesbian; perform; parody; gender; ‘third sphere’
• Publisher URL: https://www.palgrave.com/gb/book/9781137330468
• Related Public URLs: https://www.palgrave.com/gp
• Additional Information: Funders : Palgrave Macmillan