Strangers in the Village
This essay uses Edward Said’s theory of affiliation to consider the relationship between James Baldwin and contemporary artists Teju Cole and Glenn Ligon, both of whom explicitly engage with their predecessor’s writing in their own work. Specifically, Baldwin’s essay “Stranger in the Village” (1953)...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Manchester University Press
2019-09-01
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| Series: | James Baldwin Review |
| Subjects: |
| _version_ | 1811305527080124416 |
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| author | Monika Gehlawat |
| author_facet | Monika Gehlawat |
| author_sort | Monika Gehlawat |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | This essay uses Edward Said’s theory of affiliation to consider the relationship between James Baldwin and contemporary artists Teju Cole and Glenn Ligon, both of whom explicitly engage with their predecessor’s writing in their own work. Specifically, Baldwin’s essay “Stranger in the Village” (1953) serves a through-line for this discussion, as it is invoked in Cole’s essay “Black Body” and Ligon’s visual series, also titled Stranger in the Village. In juxtaposing these three artists, I argue that they express the dialectical energy of affiliation by articulating ongoing concerns of race relations in America while distinguishing themselves from Baldwin in terms of periodization, medium-specificity, and their broader relationship to Western art practice. In their adoption of Baldwin, Cole and Ligon also imagine a way beyond his historical anxieties and writing-based practice, even as they continue to reinscribe their own work with his arguments about the African-American experience. This essay is an intermedial study that reads fiction, nonfiction, language-based conceptual art and mixed media, as well as contemporary politics and social media in order consider the nuances of the African-American experience from the postwar period to our contemporary moment. Concerns about visuality/visibility in the public sphere, narrative voice, and self-representation, as well as access to cultural artifacts and aesthetic engagement, all emerge in my discussion of this constellation of artists. As a result, this essay identifies an emblematic, though not exclusive, strand of African-American intellectual thinking that has never before been brought together. It also demonstrates the ongoing relevance of Baldwin’s thinking for the contemporary political scene in this country. |
| first_indexed | 2024-04-13T08:26:55Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-892163aafac441288725399fb54d4254 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2056-9203 2056-9211 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-04-13T08:26:55Z |
| publishDate | 2019-09-01 |
| publisher | Manchester University Press |
| record_format | Article |
| series | James Baldwin Review |
| spelling | doaj.art-892163aafac441288725399fb54d42542022-12-22T02:54:24ZengManchester University PressJames Baldwin Review2056-92032056-92112019-09-0150487210.7227/JBR.5.4Strangers in the VillageMonika Gehlawat0University of Southern MississippiThis essay uses Edward Said’s theory of affiliation to consider the relationship between James Baldwin and contemporary artists Teju Cole and Glenn Ligon, both of whom explicitly engage with their predecessor’s writing in their own work. Specifically, Baldwin’s essay “Stranger in the Village” (1953) serves a through-line for this discussion, as it is invoked in Cole’s essay “Black Body” and Ligon’s visual series, also titled Stranger in the Village. In juxtaposing these three artists, I argue that they express the dialectical energy of affiliation by articulating ongoing concerns of race relations in America while distinguishing themselves from Baldwin in terms of periodization, medium-specificity, and their broader relationship to Western art practice. In their adoption of Baldwin, Cole and Ligon also imagine a way beyond his historical anxieties and writing-based practice, even as they continue to reinscribe their own work with his arguments about the African-American experience. This essay is an intermedial study that reads fiction, nonfiction, language-based conceptual art and mixed media, as well as contemporary politics and social media in order consider the nuances of the African-American experience from the postwar period to our contemporary moment. Concerns about visuality/visibility in the public sphere, narrative voice, and self-representation, as well as access to cultural artifacts and aesthetic engagement, all emerge in my discussion of this constellation of artists. As a result, this essay identifies an emblematic, though not exclusive, strand of African-American intellectual thinking that has never before been brought together. It also demonstrates the ongoing relevance of Baldwin’s thinking for the contemporary political scene in this country.james baldwinteju coleglenn ligon"stranger in the village"intermedialityaffiliationrace relations |
| spellingShingle | Monika Gehlawat Strangers in the Village James Baldwin Review james baldwin teju cole glenn ligon "stranger in the village" intermediality affiliation race relations |
| title | Strangers in the Village |
| title_full | Strangers in the Village |
| title_fullStr | Strangers in the Village |
| title_full_unstemmed | Strangers in the Village |
| title_short | Strangers in the Village |
| title_sort | strangers in the village |
| topic | james baldwin teju cole glenn ligon "stranger in the village" intermediality affiliation race relations |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT monikagehlawat strangersinthevillage |