In this seminar, we will explore James Baldwin as a writer, political commentator, and cultural critic. In reading Baldwin’s fictional and nonfictional works, we will try to make sense of an author who was at once beloved and feared, celebrated by the Civil Rights Movement and kept on the FBI’s watchlist for years. We will discuss what Baldwin has to offer for readers in the twenty-first century and we will take a look at the resonance of his works in contemporary American literature, African American Studies, and Queer Theory as well as on recent political movements.
Learning objectives:
• students will be able to name and understand the primary form, styles, and political positions of James Baldwin, and assess Baldwin’s relationship to the US
• become aware of the ways in which different identity categories of race, class, gender, and sexuality correlate to national myths, laws, and social and cultural formations
• students will become familiar with the cultural, social, and political contexts of Baldwin’s writings
• students will improve their skills of critical and close reading
Required Reading:
James Baldwin: Form Notes of a native son (1955) „autobiographical notes“ „everybody‘s Protest Novel“
James Baldwin: Go Tell it ob the Mountain (1953)
James Baldwin: Giovanni‘s Room (1956)
James Baldwin: The Fire next time (1963)
Task for Essay:
applying Baldwin’s writings to a contemporary context or text in American studies, with a focus on the US and its literary traditions.
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