Lapenson, Bruce. “Race and Existential Commitment in James 

Baldwin.” Philosophy and Literature, 37.1 (2013): 199-209.

Print.

This articles looks at James Baldwin’s work through an existential lense, relating him to such existentialists as Sartre and Camus.  Lapenson states that Baldwin’s writing is about the need for social equality, his style assuming a “sermonesque tone.”  Connecting Baldwin to existentialism was his rejection of religious belief, which could not put an end to the struggle of African Americans in the United States.  However, Baldwin was not an advocate for political inaction, and he sought to confront the racial issues in America in his writing.  Part of Baldwin’s connection to existentialist thought, too, is his idea that “all of us are products of our shared history,” and he stressed the notion of individual responsibility for oneself and society. Lapenson concludes with Baldwin’s advocacy for love, noting that Baldwin’s writing demonstrated that fear of love fueled the race problem in America.

Armengol, Josep M. “In the Dark Room: Homosexuality and/as 

Blackness in James Baldwin’s Giovanni’s Room.” Signs, 37.3 

(2012): 671-693. Print.

Armengol begins his articles by discussing the controversy of Baldwin’s second novel, Giovanni’s Room, due to its “explicit homosexual content.”  He argues that Baldwin deflects race on sexuality, which results in whiteness being associated with heterosexuality and blackness being associated with homosexuality.  However, Baldwin exposes the relationship between whiteness and heterosexuality as “unstable, multiple, fractured, and even incoherent,” evidenced in the relationship between David and Giovanni in the novel.  Armengol concludes that Baldwin’s examination of the interconnectedness between homosexuality and heterosexuality and whiteness and blackness in effect reveals the constructedness of such categories and divisions.  

Hughes, James M. “Black City Lights: Baldwin’s City of the Just.”

Journal of Black Studies, 18.2(1987): 230-241. Print.

This article looks at the importance of cities in Baldwin’s writing, and the ways in which Baldwin drew from Walt Whitman and Henry James to express his affection for city life and culture. Baldwin adopted Whitman’s awareness of “urban wandering” and James’ “self-conscious cosmopolitanism” in his writing, combining their “contrasting lights” with his “special sense of his blackness.”  Hughes mentions that Baldwin held onto the notion of the city as a refuge, using the bridge and subway as images to “map his concern with opening out.”  Subways express the idea that individuals are on the “same track regardless of direction” and bridges connect separate parts of urban environments into one whole.  Hughes concludes that Baldwin further demonstrated his similarity to Whitman and James in his willingness to confront reality.

Tomlinson, Robert. “‘Payin’ One’s Dues’: Expatriation as Personal

Experience and Paradigm in the Works of James Baldwin.”

African American Review, 33.1 (1999): 135-148. Print.

Tomlinson begins by mentioning the importance of Baldwin’s experience living in Europe to his personal and creative life. Living in Paris helped Baldwin realize his American past and African American “sense of alienation.”  He recognized a “double alienation” being an American in Europe and person of African descent in the United States, a problem he meditated on in his final novel, Just Above My Head.  Tomlinson notes that this novel shows Baldwin’s consciousness to the fact that “we are never free from history.”  He concludes that Baldwin’s writings about his personal experiences with expatriation reflected the “post-colonial dilemma.”

Lee, Dorothy H. “The Bridge of Suffering.” Callaloo, 18 (1983): 

92-99. Print.

Lee claims Baldwin’s work is rooted in suffering.  He creates characters defined by their “capacity for pain,” revealing Baldwin’s opinion that personal suffering is a bridge to awareness.  Lee goes on to use the metaphor of a bridge as a way to describe Baldwin’s theme of connecting characters through their “otherness.”  She notes that the blues offers his characters “momentary triumph over loneliness,” bridging the gap between “artist and audience, races, brothers, and lovers.” Baldwin made use of biblical allusions in his naming of characters, although his work became more secular over time.  Lee concludes with a focus on Baldwin’s meditation on the idea that “love is liberating,” and the act of loving another bridges the gap of otherness.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5VxcLx4zmlA

The Schomburg Center, dir. “James Baldwin’s Global Imagination.” 

Youtube. The Schomburg Center, 18 Feb 2011. Web. 9 Dec 2013.

This short video features speakers who honor the legacy of James Baldwin.  One of the speakers notes the theme of terror in Baldwin’s writing, referencing Baldwin’s courage for visiting the South as a homosexual black man during the Civil Rights Movement. Another speaker compares reading Baldwin’s words to going to a fountain to replenish oneself.  He also wonders if calling Baldwin a globalist is accurate, posing that the late author was more of an internationalist.  The last speaker talks about France’s influence on Baldwin’s work, and he mentions his personal relationship to Baldwin.