Why study James Baldwin? This course will examine his major fiction in relationship to works by other African American writers, male and female, and will highlight his contribution to current debates about race, gender, sexualities, and the politics of location. To what extent is Baldwin in conversation with such writers as Richard Wright, Ann Petry, Toni Morrison, Randall Kenan, and Melvin Dixon? How does Baldwin's fiction treat identity as a complex, often unstable social formation? We will read Go Tell It on the Mountain, Giovanni's Room, Going to Meet the Man, Another Country, If Beale Street Could Talk, and Just Above My Head as answers to these questions. Format: discussion/seminar. Requirements: one 5- to 7-page essay and one 8- to 10-page essay. Prerequisite: a 100-level English course, except 150, or permission of the instructor. Enrollment limit: 25 (expected: 20). Preference given to English majors and African-American Studies concentrators. (Post-1900)

Hour: BLOUNT