This passage vividly displays the difference in both spaces: the American express and the Queer Underground. David cleaning Giovanni’s room was his ill attempt to rid himself of the blackness that was taking over him due to his relationship with Giovanni, a Queer Underground rider.
Even though David fights his submersion into the “Queer Underground”, it always hovers over him like a shadow. The shadow of homosexual blackness in Giovanni’s Room is visited by author, Richard R. Reid-Pharr in his journal article entitled, “Tearing the Goat’s Flesh: Homosexuality, Abjection, and the Production of a Late Twentieth-Century Black Masculinity.” Reid-Pharr quotes a portion of the first paragraph taken from the first chapter of Giovanni’s Room that …show more content…
Abdur’s, “Simply a Menaced Boy: Analogizing Color, Undoing Dominance in James Baldwin’s Giovanni’s Room” examines how this shadow eventually becomes a part of David; forcing him, despite his denial, to abandon his heterosexual comfort zone, his cleanliness, and his pure whiteness. Abdur-Rahmen’s article deconstructs not only the racialization, characters, and sexuality present in Baldwin’s second narrative, but also breaks down the essential concept of the author’s works and the social position of Americans ,both black and white, based on race in comparison to his characters in Giovanni’s Room. Rahmen’s discussion on undoing race in Giovanni’s Room is a topic which was necessary for fully internalizing James Baldwin’s Giovanni’s Room. She contends, that at its core, Giovanni’s Room characters are of perceived whiteness. In actuality, Rahmen posits, that Baldwin’s main characters, David and Giovanni, are black. According to the author, David is black because of his outlook of homosexuality as something that is deviant and dirty. His whiteness becomes undone because of his dark perception of homoeroticism. Rahmen ties Giovanni to blackness due to the alienation, oppression, and impoverishment he undergoes within the novel.
From darkness as an extended relationship, to homoeroticism to the ever present shadow of homosexuality as blackness, critics of Giovanni’s Room make one thing certain for their readers, signifying signs play an integral role in James Baldwin’s narrative.
Even though David fights his submersion into the “Queer Underground”, it always hovers over him like a shadow. The shadow of homosexual blackness in Giovanni’s Room is visited by author, Richard R. Reid-Pharr in his journal article entitled, “Tearing the Goat’s Flesh: Homosexuality, Abjection, and the Production of a Late Twentieth-Century Black Masculinity.” Reid-Pharr quotes a portion of the first paragraph taken from the first chapter of Giovanni’s Room that …show more content…
Abdur’s, “Simply a Menaced Boy: Analogizing Color, Undoing Dominance in James Baldwin’s Giovanni’s Room” examines how this shadow eventually becomes a part of David; forcing him, despite his denial, to abandon his heterosexual comfort zone, his cleanliness, and his pure whiteness. Abdur-Rahmen’s article deconstructs not only the racialization, characters, and sexuality present in Baldwin’s second narrative, but also breaks down the essential concept of the author’s works and the social position of Americans ,both black and white, based on race in comparison to his characters in Giovanni’s Room. Rahmen’s discussion on undoing race in Giovanni’s Room is a topic which was necessary for fully internalizing James Baldwin’s Giovanni’s Room. She contends, that at its core, Giovanni’s Room characters are of perceived whiteness. In actuality, Rahmen posits, that Baldwin’s main characters, David and Giovanni, are black. According to the author, David is black because of his outlook of homosexuality as something that is deviant and dirty. His whiteness becomes undone because of his dark perception of homoeroticism. Rahmen ties Giovanni to blackness due to the alienation, oppression, and impoverishment he undergoes within the novel.
From darkness as an extended relationship, to homoeroticism to the ever present shadow of homosexuality as blackness, critics of Giovanni’s Room make one thing certain for their readers, signifying signs play an integral role in James Baldwin’s narrative.