‘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
- Albert, Richard. “The Jazz-Blues Motif in James Baldwin’s ‘Sonny’s Blues’.” College Literature, 11.2 (Spring 1984). 178-185. Print.
- Arion, Frank Martinus. Dubbelspel. Amsterdam: Bezige Bij, 1973. Print. (Double Play. English translation. London: Faber and Faber, 1998.)
- 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.
- Baldwin, James. Another Country (1963). London: Black Swan, 1984. Print.
- Baldwin, James. Giovanni’s Room. London: Michael Joseph, 1956. Print.
- Baldwin, James. Giovanni’s Room. London: Corgi Books, 1977. Print.
- Baldwin, James. If Beale Street Could Talk. London: Michael Joseph, 1978. Print.
- 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