젠더와 인종 억압의 교차성: 카슨 맥컬러스의 『결혼식 멤버』
The Intersection of Gender and Racial Oppression: Carson McCullers’s The Member of the Wedding
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This paper explores how Carson McCullers’s The Member of the Wedding (1946) explicitly parallels the rigid gender norms of Southern society with the oppression of Black individuals. McCullers critiques the South’s relentless enforcement of racial hierarchy just as sharply as its imposition of fixed gender roles and the suppression of nonconforming sexual identities. The novel revolves around three central characters: Frankie Adams, a restless young white girl; Berenice Sadie Brown, the family’s African American cook; and John Henry West, Frankie’s cross-dressing cousin. Much of the novel’s dialogue unfolds in the kitchen, where intimate conversations expose the deep-seated link between sexual intolerance and racial bigotry. These exchanges illuminate the gap between the characters’ desires and the suffering they endure, reinforcing McCullers’s portrayal of a world marked by spiritual isolation, universal alienation, and inescapable loneliness. Within this condition, distinctions of gender, class, and race dissolve into irrelevance. As part of her broader social critique, McCullers crafts a protagonist who ultimately emerges with a confident lesbian identity, challenging the very norms that seek to confine her.
Abstract
This paper explores how Carson McCullers’s The Member of the Wedding (1946) explicitly parallels the rigid gender norms of Southern society with the oppression of Black individuals. McCullers critiques the South’s relentless enforcement of racial hierarchy just as sharply as its imposition of fixed gender roles and the suppression of nonconforming sexual identities. The novel revolves around three central characters: Frankie Adams, a restless young white girl; Berenice Sadie Brown, the family’s African American cook; and John Henry West, Frankie’s cross-dressing cousin. Much of the novel’s dialogue unfolds in the kitchen, where intimate conversations expose the deep-seated link between sexual intolerance and racial bigotry. These exchanges illuminate the gap between the characters’ desires and the suffering they endure, reinforcing McCullers’s portrayal of a world marked by spiritual isolation, universal alienation, and inescapable loneliness. Within this condition, distinctions of gender, class, and race dissolve into irrelevance. As part of her broader social critique, McCullers crafts a protagonist who ultimately emerges with a confident lesbian identity, challenging the very norms that seek to confine her.