James Baldwin and the Politics of Disconnection

This chapter examines those works of Baldwin’s, both fiction and nonfiction, which are concerned with American citizenship and its complicity with a growing sense of a fractured nationality, reaching beyond explicit white and black racial tension. This work also incorporates Baldwin’s internationalism, exploring his frequent choice to reside in other countries. As the essay suggests, Baldwin’s own disconnection from America allowed him to see its internal disconnection more clearly.