Intersections of Masculinity, Sexuality, Nationality, and Racial Identity in James Baldwin

Abstract

James Baldwin stands as an enigma: the fiery, race-conscious sculptor of Go Tell It, The Fire Next Time, and the homosexual creator of Giovanni’s Room, Another Country, and Just Above My Head. His essays on racial, and national identities are archived in Nobody Knows My Name and Notes on a Native Son. In life and death, Baldwin’s quest for an inclusive humanism has been received both negatively and positively by black and white audiences. Baldwin has also become the subject of a revisionist impeachment for his unending provocativeness. This ambivalence in reading Baldwin defies an epistemological and ontological center on intersectionality and questions of gay and queer literature, migrants, civil rights, politics, and the role of the artist in the African American archive. This article contributes to critical conversations on periodizing Baldwin and racial identities at a time when America in 2021 glowers under telling dramaturgy embedded in #BlackLivesMatter and #ICan’tBreathe.