What is it about?
In James Baldwin's novels, space repeatedly appears as reflective of the inner landscapes of the characters who are torn between social inclusion and exclusion; a similar tension is inherent in the concept of cosmopolitanism: a cosmopolitan world citizen is at home everywhere but not belonging anywhere. In his novels, Baldwin explores ideas of centrality and marginality through racially and sexually marginalized identities placed within such cosmopolitan capitals as Paris and New York.
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Why is it important?
The essay addresses James Baldwin's ideas concerning identity and discusses race, sexuality, and cosmopolitanism.
Perspectives
James Baldwin's fiction brilliantly conveys impressions of social marginalization as it discusses racial tensions and mechanisms of power. Social inclusion-exclusion, a tension inherent in the concept of cosmopolitanism, characterizes the lives of Baldwin's protagonists. Baldwin, however, also conceptualized new identities to reconcile racial antagonism, concluding that life consists of shades and “suffering doesn’t have a color."
Dr. Sirpa Salenius
Ita-Suomen yliopisto
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This page is a summary of: Marginalized Identities and Spaces, Journal of Black Studies, July 2016, SAGE Publications,
DOI: 10.1177/0021934716658862.
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