Pavlic, Edward
T 3 :55 PM
Miller Learning Center 0107
This course will focus upon the life and work of James Baldwin, a Black American writer born in Harlem in 1924 who died in St Paul de Vence, France in 1987. During his life Baldwin wrote novels, stories, essays, plays, poems, reviews, TV scripts, screenplays for Hollywood, political speeches and pamphlets, catalogue copy for art exhibits as well as other things. Baldwin's work in film and TV found him acting in and producing documentary works as well as fictive ones. His skill and verve in interviews, speeches and debates made him a household name and moral fixture in American political culture of the 1960s, 70s, and into the final decade of his life. We'll delve into various of his works in roughly chronological--which in this case means historical--order. Foremost among issues to consider will be the role of "performance" in (and of) Baldwin's work and in (and of) his life.