Of Latitudes Unknown

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 Université 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.

This collection of essays on Baldwin’s radical imagination is well timed with its focus on Baldwin’s connection to visual arts and media studies, but it covers other fertile ground in examining Baldwin’s 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.

• Foreword: The Death of the ProphetDouglas Field (University of Manchester, UK)Introduction: Baldwin’s Radical ImaginationAlice Mikal Craven (American University of Paris, France) and William E. Dow (Université Paris-Est, France)Part 1: James Baldwin: Film, Photography, and the Visual Arts1. Black Bodies on Screen, White Privilege in Hollywood: James Baldwin on Lang and PremingerAlice Mikal Craven (American University of Paris, France)2. Picturing Jimmy, Picturing Self: James Baldwin, Beauford Delaney, and the Color of LightJames Smalls (University of Maryland, Baltimore County, USA)3. Lessons in Light: Beauford Delaney’s and James Baldwin’s ‘Unnameable Objects’Tyler T. Schmidt (CUNY Lehman, USA)Part 2: Baldwin’s Journalism and Literary Journalism4. “To End the Racial Nightmare, and Achieve Our Country”: James Baldwin and the US Civil Rights MovementKathy Roberts Forde (University of Massachusetts Amherst, USA)5. The Documentary Tradition in James Baldwin’s Écriture VéritéIsabelle Meuret (Université libre de Bruxelles, Belgium)6. Journeys of the “I” in James Baldwin’s Literary-journalistic EssaysWilliam E. Dow (Université Paris-Est, France)Part 3: Baldwin Re-Sighted Transnationally7. French Baldwin (on Screen): “le criminel artiste”Claudine Raynaud (University Paul Valéry, France)8. The Terror Within: Giovanni's Room, L’Étranger, and the Possibility of an Absurd HeroismTimothy McGinnis (Harvard Medical School, USA)9. James Baldwin’s Black Power: No Name in the Street, Fanon, Camus, and the Black PanthersJames Miller (Kingston University, UK)Part 4: James Baldwin and Changing Communities: Recontextualizing Baldwin’s Legacy10. Continuing a Legacy: James Baldwin, Ta-Nehisi Coates, and the African American WitnessMarcus Bruce (Bates College, USA)11. Baldwin, the “Arab,” and the End of the WestBill V. Mullen (Purdue University, USA)12. Effective/Defective James BaldwinRobert F. Reid-Pharr (City University of New York, USA)List of Contributors Index