Kirjahaku

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 Baldwinâs personal, political, and psychological development, Douglas Field breaks through the established critical difficulties caused by Baldwinâs 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 themesâthe Cold War, African American literary history, conflicts between spirituality and organized religion, and transnationalismâto 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.

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.

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.

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 Features * A broad-ranging survey of Cold War Culture in America * Introductions to the chapters place the case studies in their wider context * Covers both high and low culture; and shows links between politics and culture * Focuses on neglected areas of gender, race and sexuality

A moving exploration of the life and work of the celebrated American writer, blending biography and memoir with literary criticism. Since James Baldwin’s death in 1987, his writing – including The Fire Next Time, one of the manifestos of the Civil Rights Movement, and Giovanni’s Room, a pioneering work of gay fiction – has only grown in relevance. Douglas Field was introduced to Baldwin’s essays and novels by his father, who witnessed the writer’s debate with William F. Buckley at Cambridge University in 1965. In Walking in the dark, he embarks on a journey to unravel his life-long fascination and to understand why Baldwin continues to enthral us decades after his death.Tracing Baldwin’s footsteps in France, the US and Switzerland, and digging into archives, Field paints an intimate portrait of the writer’s life and influence. At the same time, he offers a poignant account of coming to terms with his father’s Alzheimer’s disease. Interweaving Baldwin’s writings on family, illness, memory and place, Walking in the dark is an eloquent testament to the enduring power of great literature to illuminate our paths.