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Giovanni’s room

Giovanni’s room . James Baldwin . context. Written in 1956 Set in Paris Protagonist David (American living in Paris) struggling with coming to terms with themes of homosexuality and identity Criticized for black author writing about white homosexuals

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Giovanni’s room

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  1. Giovanni’s room James Baldwin

  2. context • Written in 1956 • Set in Paris • Protagonist David (American living in Paris) struggling with coming to terms with themes of homosexuality and identity • Criticized for black author writing about white homosexuals • Looks at issues of race, sexuality and personal freedom • Subject of homosexuality in three novels: Giovanni’s Room (1956), Another Country (1962)and Just Above My Head (1979).

  3. Homosexuality reference • Giovanni’s Room was quite daring to write in 1950s, pre-Stonewall, Joseph McCarthy-era America (McCarthy persecutions notoriously homophobic and “queer-baiting”; suspected homosexuality made many people a target and could seriously damage someone’s personal and professional reputation).  By this time, Baldwin was already living in Europe, but the cultural climate in America was anti-gay and Baldwin had only just established a name as a writer.  Giovanni’s Room was first published in UK and only then in the USA. Reference: Neil Miller, Out of the Past: Gay and Lesbian History from 1869 to the Present.  Revised and updated ed.  New York: Alyson Books, 2006.  Pp. 284-89.

  4. Discussion • How do you perceive homosexuality evolving throughout history?

  5. Questions • Describe David’s relationship with his father? • How would you describe the protagonist? • How do you think time and place effect this work? • What would you say are some of the key themes and how did you come to recognize these? • How would you explain/describe the writing style? • Find quotes that you think summarize main characters : Giovanni, Jacques, David, Ellen.

  6. thinking • To what extent is David responsible for what happened to Giovanni? To what extent were events outside of his control? • What was David running from or searching for when he left his home in Brooklyn? If running, did he ever get away from it? If searching, did he ever find it? • What role might Giovanni's experience in his Italian village play in his current relationship with David? In his relationships with men in general? • How important is Hella to the story? Is she as complete and complex a character as David and Giovanni? • What is the significance of Giovanni's room?

  7. Visions of America • Giovanni uses the fact that David is an American to pinpoint the key difference between him and David – Giovanni has a long and painful past whereas David is young, optimistic, and naïve.David is put in an impossible position, given the nature of his desires and the conflicts within American cultural ideas – he is encouraged to pursue happiness, but same-sex love is not approved of in 1950s America.

  8. Visions of America • Why does Giovanni constantly pick on David for being an American? What role does the short nature of American history play in Giovanni's prejudices against Americans? • How do David and Giovanni use discussions of their respective nationalities to flirt with one another? Why do you think that they choose nationalism as the subject through which they will flirt? • How important is American policy toward gay individuals in shaping David's view of America? Is Giovanni's characterization – that Americans think privacy is a crime – an accurate one? • How does David and Hella's pursuit of happiness relate to the factthat they are Americans?

  9. Agree or disagree • David hopes to marry Hella because he believes that would confirm his masculinity; to David, being a man involves loving and desiring women

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