True Men and Queer Spaces in Truman Capote’s Answered Prayers

Abstract

ABSTRACTThis essay argues that Truman Capote’s unfinished novel Answered Prayers critiques the existing capitalist gender order through its delineation of queer utopianism and social-sexual spaces. To make this argument, it looks at the shifting definition of masculinity in the 1970s by analyzing the increased visibility of homosexual subcultures in the mainstream and by examining how the men’s magazine Esquire (the original place of publication for Answered Prayers) responded to these shifting gender norms. Having established this historical and cultural context, the essay develops an analysis of Answered Prayers in conversation with twenty-first-century Capote scholars who have sought to unveil and analyze the political dimensions of Capote’s persona and his writing, especially in relation to cultural norms of sexuality, conformity, and consumption. The essay then turns to the role of queer spaces in Answered Prayers to demonstrate how Capote critiques the relationship between economic and masculine domination.