From Baldwin’s Paris to Benjamin’s: The architectonics of race and sexuality in Giovanni’s Room

From the Harlem ghetto of his childhood, to the affl uent salons of international literati he

came to know in his later years, James Baldwin (1924-87) was perhaps the best-known

African American author, intellectual, and civil rights spokesperson of the 1960s.1 Like

many other writers at mid-twentieth century – amid the post-1945 tumultuous transition

into the Cold War and Civil Rights struggles – Baldwin believed that literature had power to

alter social relations by changing individuals and challenging racialized power structures.2