JAMES BALDWIN’S "GIOVANNI’S ROOM" (1956) AS A TRANSGRESSIVE WHITE-LIFE NOVEL
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.24193/subbphilo.2021.1.14Keywords:
blackness, James Baldwin, post-war fiction, queer, white-life novelAbstract
James Baldwin’s Giovanni’s Room (1956) as a Transgressive White-Life Novel. In the wake of the Second World War, American literature saw the rise of a type of novel that is little known today: the white-life novel. This type of novel is written by black writers but describes white characters acting in a mostly white milieu. While at the time African-American critics praised this new way of writing as a sign of maturity, many have since criticized it for being regressive by pandering to white tastes. This paper sets out to analyze the most famous of these novels, namely James Baldwin’s Giovanni’s Room (1956). It is my contention that Giovanni’s Room connects blackness and queerness through the use of visual metaphors in the novel, disrupting thus the post-war consensus on ideals of white masculinity. The novel, while seemingly abandoning black protagonists, enacts a subtle critique of white heteronormativity akin to Baldwin’s own positioning within American thought of the post-war era.
REZUMAT. Giovanni’s Room (1956) de James Baldwin ca roman white-life transgresiv. În perioada de după al Doilea Război Mondial, în literatura americană a apărut un nou tip de roman, puțin cunoscut astăzi: romanul white-life. Acest tip de roman, scris de autori de culoare, se diferenția de literatura Afro-Americană din acea perioadă prin protagoniștii săi albi. Mulți dintre intelectualii Afro-Americani din acea vreme au apreciat acest tip de literatură, văzându-l-l ca pe un semn al maturității culturale. Alți critici, mai ales cei de mai târziu, au criticat-o ca fiind regresivă, încercând să satisfacă gusturile populației albe. Acest studiu analizează cel mai cunoscut dintre aceste romane, anume romanul Giovanni’s Room (1956) de James Baldwin, argumentând că acesta stabilește o conexiune între rasă și cultura queer prin metaforele vizuale folosite. Astfel, romanul pune sub semnul întrebării noțiunile legate de rasa albă și masculinitate din acea perioadă. Acest proces oglindește poziția autorului în cultura americană, concretizând-se într-o critică subtilă a mentalității americane din a doua jumătate a secolului al XX-lea.
Cuvinte-cheie: de culoare, James Baldwin, literatura americană post-1945, roman white-life
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