James Baldwin and the Queer Imagination
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | 4.77 (892 Votes) |
| Asin | : | 047207234X |
| Format Type | : | paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 228 Pages |
| Publish Date | : | 2017-06-08 |
| Language | : | English |
DESCRIPTION:
"Tour de Queer Force" according to Synapticlife. This book offers an exquisite exploration of complex narratives pertaining to sexuality, gender, and race. Brim's efforts at positioning Baldwin as a paradoxical, rather than quintessential, figure in black queer studies makes a powerful contribution to scholarship. I suspect that his conceptualization of "queer failures" and ruptures of the "unqueer" will deeply influence the course of queer studies. This book is a must read!
Brim (English, queer studies, CUNY) adds a brilliant, provocative perspective to these conversations. This is a great book, but the uninitiated may find it difficult. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty; general readers. --Choice Review "In addition to being a lovely prose stylist, Brim is a dexterous and efficient guide through a variety of critical contexts and debates, making his book accessible to Baldwin fans only passingly familiar with queer theory, as well as to queer academics and students new to Baldwin’s work." ---Lambda Literary Review (Sam Huber Lambda Literary
Matt Brim’s James Baldwin and the Queer Imagination draws on the contributions of queer theory and black queer studies to critically engage with and complicate the project of queering Baldwin and his work. The central figure in black gay literary history, James Baldwin has become a familiar touchstone for queer scholarship in the academy. Brim argues that Baldwin animates and, in contrast, disrupts both the black gay literary tradition and the queer theoretical enterprise that have claimed him. Brim thus argues that Baldwin’s work is deeply marked by ruptures of the “unqueer” into transcendent queer thought—and that readers must sustain rather than override this paradoxical dynamic within acts of queer imagination.. More paradoxically, even as Baldwin’s fiction brilliantly succeeds in imagining queer intersections of race and sexuality, it simultaneously exhibits striking queer failures, whether exploiting gay love or erasing black lesbian desire