Douglas Field

All Those Strangers examines how Baldwin's fiction and non-fiction shaped and responded to key political and cultural developments in the United States from the 1940s to the 1980s.

The Art and Lives of James Baldwin

All Those Strangers

GBS_insertPreviewButtonPopup('ISBN:9780748619238);Although it is fifty years since the height of the Cold War, recent events have seen a resurgence of surveillance, paranoia and nuclear threats. Cultural critics and politicians are drawing parallels between the threat of Communism in the 1950s and 1960s and the present 'axis of evil'. This book taps into this interest, drawing on work from prominent academics as well as new theorists working in the field of Cold War Studies.American Cold War Culture guides the reader through recent and established theories as well as introducing a number of previously neglected themes, films and texts. Divided into two parts (Cultural Themes and Cultural Forms) it features chapters on the themes of Gender and Sexuality; Race; Politics; the Family; Mobility; and the cultural forms of Film; Literature; Poetry; Television. The authors take a case study approach, and each chapter is prefaced by a contextualising introduction to the general theme or form being covered, ensuring accessibility to the broadest possible readership.Key FeaturesA broad-ranging survey of Cold War Culture in AmericaIntroductions to the chapters place the case studies in their wider contextCovers both high and low culture; and shows links between politics and cultureFocuses on neglected areas of gender, race and sexuality"

American Cold War Culture

This book guides the reader through recent and established theories as well as introducing a number of previously neglected themes, films and texts.

Adored by many, appalling to some, baffling still to others, few authors defy any single critical narrative to the confounding extent that James Baldwin manages. Was he a black or queer writer? Was he a religious or secular writer? Was he a spokesman for the civil rights movement or a champion of the individual? His critics, as disparate as his readership, endlessly wrestle with paradoxes, not just in his work but also in the life of a man who described himself as "all those strangers called Jimmy Baldwin" and who declared that "all theories are suspect." Viewing Baldwin through a cultural-historical lens alongside a more traditional literary critical approach, All Those Strangers examines how his fiction and nonfiction shaped and responded to key political and cultural developments in the United States from the 1940s to the 1980s. Showing how external forces molded Baldwin's personal, political, and psychological development, Douglas Field breaks through the established critical difficulties caused by Baldwin's geographical, ideological, and artistic multiplicity by analyzing his life and work against the radically transformative politics of his time. The book explores under-researched areas in Baldwin's life and work, including his relationship to the Left, his FBI files, and the significance of Africa in his writing, while also contributing to wider discussions about postwar US culture. Field deftly navigates key twentieth-century themes-the Cold War, African American literary history, conflicts between spirituality and organized religion, and transnationalism-to bring a number of isolated subjects into dialogue with each other. By exploring the paradoxes in Baldwin's development as a writer, rather than trying to fix his life and work into a single framework, All Those Strangers contradicts the accepted critical paradigm that Baldwin's life and work are too ambiguous to make sense of. By studying him as an individual and an artist in flux, Field reveals the manifold ways in which Baldwin's work develops and coheres.

With contributions from major scholars of African American literature, history, and cultural studies, A Historical Guide to James Baldwin focuses on the four tumultous decades that defined the great author's life and art. Providing a comprehensive examination of Baldwin's varied body of work that includes short stories, novels, and polemical essays, this collection reflects the major events that left an indelible imprint on the iconic writer: civil rights, black nationalism and the struggle for gay rights in the pre- and post-Stonewall eras. The essays also highlight Baldwin's under-studied role as a trans-Atlantic writer, his lifelong struggle with faith, and his use of music, especially the blues, as a key to unlock the mysteries of his identity as an exile, an artist, and a black American in a racially hostile era.

A Historical Guide to James Baldwin

Dwight A. McBride

Justin A. Joyce

The James Baldwin Review (JBR) is an annual journal that brings together a wide array of peer-reviewed critical and creative work on the life, writings, and legacy of James Baldwin. This edition brings together all of the articles published in this year's volume.

James Baldwin Review

Dwight McBride

Justin Joyce

James Baldwin Review (JBR) is an annual journal that brings together a wide array of peer-reviewed critical and creative work on the life, writings, and legacy of James Baldwin. In addition to these cutting-edge contributions, each issue contains a review of recent Baldwin scholarship and an award-winning graduate student essay. James Baldwin Review publishes essays that invigorate scholarship on James Baldwin; catalyze explorations of the literary, political, and cultural influence of Baldwin's writing and political activism; and deepen our understanding and appreciation of this complex and luminary figure.

Volume 7

This study provides an engaging overview and clear analysis of the fiction, non-fiction and drama of African-American writer James Baldwin ( 1924-1987). Whilst giving close attention to Baldwin's popular works such as Go Tell it on the Mountain and Another Country ; it also explores the important but less well known themes and texts including the use of the blues, masculinity, race and sexuality.

James Baldwin

A clear overview and analysis of James Baldwin's life and work. This study provides an engaging overview and clear analysis of the fiction, non-fiction and drama of African- American writer James Baldwin (1924-1987). Whilst giving close attention to Baldwin's popular works such as Go Tell it on the Mountain and Another Country, it also explores other important but less well known themes and texts, including the use of the blues, masculinity, race, and sexuality.

Douglas Field

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