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Strangely at odds with the view of Baldwin as racial spokesman, this view emphasizes the craftsmanship of Baldwin’s early novels and his treatment of “mainstream” themes such as religious hypocrisy, father-son tensions, and sexual identity. Grouped with Ralph Ellison as a major “post-Wright” black novelist, Baldwin represents, in this view, the generation that rejected “protest literature” in favor of “universal” themes. More accurate, though ultimately as limited, is the view of Baldwin primarily as an exemplar of the African American presence in the “mainstream” of the American tradition.
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To consider Baldwin primarily as a racial spokesman, however, imposes a stereotype that distorts many of his most penetrating insights and underestimates his status as a literary craftsman. Some, most notably Another Country, attained a high degree of public visibility when published, leading to a widely accepted vision of Baldwin as a topical writer. Indeed, his novels frequently mirror both Baldwin’s personal philosophy and its social context. To be sure, Baldwin’s progression from an individualistic, universalist stance through active involvement with the integrationist Civil Rights movement to an increasing sympathy with militant Pan-Africanist thought parallels the general development of African American thought between the early 1950’s and the mid-1970’s. Though not undeserved, this reputation more frequently obscures than clarifies the nature of his literary achievement, which involves his relationship to African American culture, existential philosophy, and the moral tradition of the world novel. His semiautobiographical first novel, Go Tell It on the Mountain (1953), regarded as his finest, was followed by the essay collections Notes of a Native Son (1955) and Nobody Knows My Name (1961) the novels Giovanni's Room (1956), a story of homosexual life, and Another Country (1962) the long polemical essay The Fire Next Time (1963), prophesying widespread racial violence and the play Blues for Mister Charlie (produced 1964).James Baldwin’s (1924– 1987) public role as a major African American racial spokesman of the 1950’s and 1960’s guarantees his place in American cultural history. After 1948 he lived alternately in France and the U.S. He grew up in poverty in the New York City district of Harlem and became a preacher while in his teens. His eloquence and passion on the subject of race made him for years perhaps the country's most prominent black writer (1924-1987) African-American writer and civil rights activist, author of "The Fire Next Time" and "Another Country Связанные Термины James Arthur Baldwin born Aug. His semiautobiographical first novel, Go Tell It on the Mountain (1953), regarded as his finest, was followed by the essay collections Notes of a Native Son (1955) and Nobody Knows My Name (1961) the novels Giovanni's Room (1956), a story of homosexual life, and Another Country (1962) the long polemical essay The Fire Next Time (1963), prophesying widespread racial violence and the play Blues for Mister Charlie (produced 1964).