Of Latitudes Unknown: James Baldwin's Radical Imagination

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Of Latitudes Unknown is a multi-faceted study of James Baldwins radical imagination. It is a selective and thoughtful survey that re-investigates the grounds of Baldwin studies and provides new critical approaches, subjects, and orientations for Baldwin criticism. This volume joins recent critical collections in un-fragmenting Baldwin and establishing further conjunctions in his work: the essay and the novel; the polemical and the aesthetic; his use of and participation in visual forms; and his American as well as international identities. But it goes beyond other recent studies by focusing on new entities of Baldwins radical imagination: his English and French language selves; his late encounters with Africa; his appearances on French television and interviews with French journalists; and his unrecognized literary journalism. Of Latitudes Unknown also addresses Baldwins relations with the Arab world, his anticipation of contemporary film and media studies, and his paradoxical public intellectualism. As it reassesses Baldwins contributions to and influences on world literary history, Of Latitudes Unknown equally explores why the critical appreciation of Baldwins writing continues to flourish, and why it remains a vast territory whose parts lie open to much deeper exploration and elaboration.

Reviews

This collection of essays on Baldwins radical imagination is well timed with its focus on Baldwins connection to visual arts and media studies, but it covers other fertile ground in examining Baldwins literary journalism and his internationalism, including his interactions with Africa and the Arab world A much more complex picture of Baldwin emerges; this is a Baldwin who demanded understanding of the past, interrogated the present, and imagined a stronger future. Drawing on the Baldwin archive in creative and compelling ways, this collection expands understanding of Baldwin as a person and as a cultural figure. The collection will interest international studies and media studies scholars as well as scholars of African American literature. * CHOICE *
Of Latitudes Unknown shows us a Baldwin we need to see now, one freed from the furious perfection and certain martyrdom of prophecy. The volumes emphasis on both formalism and internationalism restores crucial aspects of a figure whose weight as an American polemicist rested on his high style and regular absence from his native country. * William J. Maxwell, Professor of English and African American Studies at Washington University in St. Louis, USA, editor of James Baldwin: The FBI File (2017), and author of F.B. Eyes: How J. Edgar Hoovers Ghostreaders Framed African American Literature (2015) *
This volume contributes to the expanding body of Baldwin criticism in important ways, emphasizing visual art, literary journalism, and transnational perspectives. As we continue to assess and appreciate Baldwins legacy, the essays collected here help to paint the complex, layered portrait of Baldwin he deserves and demands. * D. Quentin Miller, Professor of English, Suffolk University, Boston, USA, and author of Understanding John Edgar Wideman (2018) *
Brilliantly edited, this volume offers truly exciting and fresh perspectives on Baldwins body of work with direct implications for our world then and now. * Michele Elam, William Robertson Coe Professor of English, Stanford University, USA, and editor of The Cambridge Companion to James Baldwin (2015) *

Author Bio

Alice Mikal Craven is Professor of Comparative Literature at the American University of Paris, France, and Chair of Film Studies. She is co-editor of Richard Wright: New Readings in the 21st Century (2011) and Richard Wright in a Post-Racial Imaginary (Bloomsbury, 2014). She is author of Visible and Invisible Whiteness: American White Supremacy through the Cinematic Lens (2018). William E. Dow is Professor of American Literature at the Universit Paris-Est (UPEM), France, and Professor of English at the American University of Paris, France. He is the author of Narrating Class in American Fiction (2009) and co-editor of Richard Wright: New Readings in the 21st Century (2011) and Richard Wright in a Post-Racial Imaginary (Bloomsbury, 2014). Yoko Nakamura is a Ph.D. candidate in Interdisciplinary Islamic and Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Iowa, USA.