Research Article

‘In a Queer Time and Place’: Queerolization in Giovanni’s Room and Black-Label

Number: 9-10 August 15, 2018
  • Kathleen Gyssels
TR EN

‘In a Queer Time and Place’: Queerolization in Giovanni’s Room and Black-Label

Abstract

James Baldwin and Léon Damas have never been compared in terms of their representation of exile and uprootedness in the capital of France. More than the geographical and material distance from their respective native countries, which in fact they have left with a certain disgust, there is the constant discomfort of engaging with the Other (the same sex individual or the other ethnic different sex partner). Both writers have therefore been pioneers in the description of a double impasse and a double line to cross: as black subjects in a white dominated world, and as men who felt also attracted to same sex-partners. While Damas was not (at least not outing his gayness as Baldwin has done) queer, he adresses in Black-Label (1956) many of the same anxieties as those in Giovanni’s Room (1956) and they are related to performing black masculinity in a white dominant heterosexual racist society (Gyssels 2010).

Keywords

References

  1. Albert, Richard. “The Jazz-Blues Motif in James Baldwin’s ‘Sonny’s Blues’.” College Literature, 11.2 (Spring 1984). 178-185. Print.
  2. Arion, Frank Martinus. Dubbelspel. Amsterdam: Bezige Bij, 1973. Print. (Double Play. English translation. London: Faber and Faber, 1998.)
  3. Baldwin, Kate A. “The Russian Connection: Interracialism as Queer Alliance in Langston Hughes’ The Ways of White Folks.” Modern Fiction Studies, 48.4 (Winter 2002). 795-824. Print.
  4. Baldwin, James. Another Country (1963). London: Black Swan, 1984. Print.
  5. Baldwin, James. Giovanni’s Room. London: Michael Joseph, 1956. Print.
  6. Baldwin, James. Giovanni’s Room. London: Corgi Books, 1977. Print.
  7. Baldwin, James. If Beale Street Could Talk. London: Michael Joseph, 1978. Print.
  8. Braidotti, Rosi. Nomadic Subjects. Embodiment and Sexuality in Contemporary Feminist Theory. New York: Columbia University Press, 1994. Print.

Details

Primary Language

English

Subjects

Philosophy , Anthropology , Political Science , Sociology , Psychology , Creative Arts and Writing , Religious Studies

Journal Section

Research Article

Authors

Kathleen Gyssels This is me
Belgium

Publication Date

August 15, 2018

Submission Date

July 7, 2017

Acceptance Date

-

Published in Issue

Year 2018 Number: 9-10

APA
Gyssels, K. (2018). ‘In a Queer Time and Place’: Queerolization in Giovanni’s Room and Black-Label. Masculinities: A Journal of Identity and Culture, 9-10, 168-195. https://izlik.org/JA22TK95WC