Emotions, Body-Language, and Power Dynamics —A Queer Reading of Todd Haynes’ Carol
Abstract
This article studies how Todd Haynes’ famous queer film Carol (2015) explores the delicate queer relationship through their complex emotions, subtle body language, and power dynamics. Carol is a film depicting how two women with distinct age and class gaps fall in love under the pressure of moral standards and social constraints in 1950s America. This article is divided into three sections. The first section is cantered on the emotions between Therese and Carol. The second section discusses the power dynamics between them. The third part focuses on body language in Carol’s cinematography. After the analysis, this article concludes that the complicated but profound emotions between Carol and Therese make their touches contained but ardent. Therefore, authoritarianism of power does not exist in their relationship, but fluidity of power does. In doing so, this article found out the equality, respects, irrationality and selfishness are all exist in Carol and Therese’s relationship, their love is profound, contained and relatively equal but also not perfect.
References
- Halperin, D. (1995). Saint Foucault: Towards a gay hagiography. Oxford University Press.
- Doty, A. (1993). Making things perfectly queer: Interpreting mass culture. University of Minnesota Press.
- Jagose, A., & Genschel, C. (1996). Queer theory. Melbourne University Press.
- Abelove, H. (1993). From Thoreau to queer politics. The Yale Journal of Criticism, 6(2), 17.
- Hammack, P. L., Frost, D. M., & Hughes, S. D. (2019). Queer intimacies: A new paradigm for the study of relationship diversity. The Journal of Sex Research, 56(4-5), 556-592.
- Weber, M. (1954). Max Weber on law in economy and society. Harvard University Press.
- Simon, H. A. (1957). Models of man. New York: Wiley.
- Russell, B. (1938). Power: A new social analysis. New York: Norton.
- Galbraith, J. K. (1983). The anatomy of power. Houghton-Mifflin.
- Foucault, M. (1978). History of Sexuality I: The Will to Know. New York: Random House.
- Butler, J. (2006). Gender trouble. Routledge.
- Fisher, J. M. (1976). Sex differences in smoking dynamics. Journal of Health and Social Behavior, 17, 25-33.
- Ribeiro, L. F. (1995). The aura of romance: Smoking and classical Hollywood cinema, image and representation (Master's thesis). University of Southern California.
- Bozzetti, L. P. (1972). Group psychotherapy with addicted smokers. Psychotherapy and Psychosomatics, 20(3), 172–175.
- Jacobs, M. A., Knapp, P. H., Rosenthal, S., & Haskell, D. (1970). Psychologic aspects of cigarette smoking in men: A clinical evaluation. Psychosomatic Medicine, 32(5),469–485.
- Gough, H. G. (1957). Manual for the California Psychological Inventory. Palo Alto, CA: Consulting Psychologists Press.
- Matarazzo, J. D., & Saslow, G. (1960). Psychological and related characteristics of smokers and nonsmokers. Psychological Bulletin, 57(6), 493–513.
- Daigle, A. (2017). Of love and longing: Queer nostalgia in Carol. Queer Studies in Media & Popular Culture, 2(2), 199-211.
- Bigsby, C. (Ed.). (2006). The Cambridge companion to modern American culture. Cambridge University Press.
- Fox, C. (2013). American women in the 1950s: The years between the war and liberation. Saber and Scroll, 2(3), 5-12.
- Galik, A. E. (2009). Queer texts and the Cold War: How nationalism and domesticity shaped US lesbian and gay writing, 1945-1960 (Doctoral dissertation, University of Minnesota).
- McMullin, J. A., & Cairney, J. (2004). Self-esteem and the intersection of age, class, and gender. Journal of aging studies, 18(1), 75-90.
- Kovsh1а, O., & Dziuba2b, M. (2022). Symbolism of color in cinema. ВІСНИК, 5(2), 207-215.