Abigail Fricke

Mrs. Stanford

ENG237

11 December 2019

Annotated Bibliographies

Canavan, Brendan. “Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner at Tiffany’s: Existentialism and Consumption

in Capote’s Novella.” ​Marketing Theory​, vol. 18, no. 4, 2018, pp. 571–578.,

doi:10.1177/1470593117753982.

This article, written by a highly respected college professor at the University of Huddersfield,

effectively discusses the themes of existentialism and consumption within Truman Capote’s

classic fiction novella, Breakfast at Tiffany’s. Existentialism relates to an essentially optimistic

philosophy that deals with “what it means to be human, what it means to be happy, and what it

means to be oneself”. On the other hand, consumption relates to the behavior that corresponds to

those three questions. Through the analysis of Breakfast at Tiffany’s, it was shown that these two

themes largely correlate to the sexuality of the main character, Holly Golightly. Refusing to

conform to the cultural standards of the 1960s, Golightly views her sexuality as intrinsic and

insists on building relationships with people based on their personality, not sex. This information

will prove to be extremely helpful in the first body paragraph, as the topic of sexuality within

Breakfast at Tiffany’s is what is being discussed.

Grönfors, Martti, and Olli Stålström. “Power, Prestige, Profit: AIDS and the Oppression of

Homosexual People.” ​Acta Sociologica (Taylor & Francis Ltd)​, vol. 30, no. 1, Mar.

1987, pp. 53–66. ​EBSCOhost,​ doi:10.1177/000169938703000103.

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This article, written by two highly respected college professors at the University of Helsinki,

carefully examines the oppression of homosexual people after the AIDS scare in the 1960s’. In

order to do so, the article is broken down into seven sections, “Social Control of Sexuality”,

“History of the AIDS Panic”, “AIDS Research Strategies in the Netherlands”, “AIDS Research

in Finland”, “Tactics in Status Pursuit”, “New Media in Information Manipulation”, and “Who

Next?”. The section on “Social Control of Sexuality” will prove to be the most useful in the

introduction paragraph. In this section, background information on sexuality in the 1960s is

provided. As Truman Capote was openly homosexual and wrote both Breakfast at Tiffany’s and

In Cold Blood during the 1960s, this information and how it talks about the way society

responded to the homosexual people during that time period is nessacary in the introduction

paragraph. Adding this information would help readers to understand how the time period in

which Capote was writing influenced his work along with his sexuality itself.

Mastilo, Tatjana. “Miss Holly Golightly, Travelling.” ​Journal of an Investigation of Female

Representation in Breakfast at Tiffany’s,​ 2007 ​Core.ac.uk​,https://core.ac.uk/reader

/12516222.

This article, written by a highly credible college professor at the University of Roskilde, is a

synopsis that hopes to examine the main characteristics of the female representation in the 1960s

popular Hollywood film, Breakfast at Tiffany’s. Wishing to discuss the differences between the

main character in the movie and the main character in the novella, this article focuses greatly on

the nature of the relationship between the main character and the narrator. Although it is not a

goal to discuss the differences between the movie version and the novella version of Breakfast at

Tiffany’s, the examination of the relationship between the main character and the narrator will
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prove to be very useful in the first body paragraph. As the theme of sexuality within Breakfast at

Tiffany’s is what’s being discussed in the first body paragraph, the simple fact that this article

not only mentions the idea that the main character, Holly Golightly, experimented with her

sexuality but that the male narrator himself may have been homosexual himself, proves that this

article will be very helpful.

Noel, Melissa W. “A Cold Manipulation of Language.” ​English Journal​, vol. 100, no. 4, Mar.

2011, pp. 50–54. ​EBSCOhost,​

search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=59520249&site=ehost-live.

This article, written by an extremely dependable high school professor, provides an examination

of the language in Truman Capotes In Cold Blood to help students develop a better realization of

how writers use their language choices to influence readers. Breaking down the novella and its

characters, this idea is shown through the use of lesson-plan style graphs and charts, along with

simple paragraph explanations. Although literary devices such as diction and figurative language

are not the focus of the essay, this information will prove to be useful in the second body

paragraph. As the theme of sexuality and how it affects the actions of the main characters within

In Cold Blood is the focus of this paragraph, the fact that parts of the story are explained along

with all of the main characters themselves makes this article useful. Additionally, a small part of

this information could be useful in the introduction paragraph where Truman Capote’s reasoning

behind writing In Cold Blood and the way he wrote the novel itself is being discussed.

Solomon, Jeff. “Young, Effeminate, and Strange.” ​Studies in Gender & Sexuality,​ vol. 6, no. 3,

Summer 2005, pp. 293–326. ​EBSCOhost​, dYoi:10.1080/15240650609349279.

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This article, written by a very trustworthy English professor and author from the University of

Southern California, discusses how Truman Capote hid neither his sexuality nor his writing and

still managed to thrive amidst the homophobia and restriction of the 1960s. This idea is discussed

in a multitude of ways, most notably by examining how Capote launched himself into fame by

creating a campaign of detailed self-representation photographs. These photographs grew in

popularity after the publication of his first novel, Other Voices, Other Rooms. Although that

novel isn’t the main focus of the essay, these photographs themseleves will prove to be very

useful when examining Capote’s sexuality within the introduction paragraph. This is due to the

fact that these detailed self-portraits allowed Capote to be not only identified as gay but also

observed and talked about as “nonspecifically queer”. This can be proved to have an impact on

his writing as he diverted and drew attention to the large homosexual contents within his work.

Stockton, Kathryn Bond. “Feeling Like Killing?” ​GLQ: A Journal of Lesbian & Gay Studies,​

vol. 13, no. 2/3, Apr. 2007, pp. 301–325. ​EBSCOhost,​ doi:10.1215/10642684-2006-035.

This article, written by an extremely dependable English professor from the University of Duke,

explores the “murderous motivations” concerning homosexual children. The article also speaks

large amounts about how these “murderous motivations” produce a difficult legal debate in

regards to “motive” and “intent”, in the context of indicting a homosexual child who has

committed an act of murder. The article uses many sources in order to present and support this

idea, such as the novel In Cold Blood by Truman Capote. The other sources were those such as

the two motion pictures, Heavenly Creatures and Elephant, as well as psychologist Sigmund

Freud's theories on dreams. Regardless of the other sources that were used, the fact that this

article uses Capote’s novel, In Cold Blood, as a way to make connections between murderous
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behavior and one’s sexuality is what makes this article useful. Specifically, it will be useful in

the second body paragraph where the theme of sexuality within In Cold Blood is being

discussed.