Reading Notes Week 14: Baldwin, Part A


Postwar and Postcolonial Literature:

- 1945 to 1968
-  The United States and the Soviet Union became engaged in the Cold War, attempting to create the most powerful weapons capable of destroying the planet
- NATO: North Atlantic Treaty Organization united Western Europe and North America while the Warsaw Pact united the Soviets and Eastern Europe
- 1949 Communist Revolution in China lead by Mao Zedong was successful
- Fought the war "by proxy" in Korea and Vietnam to avoid destroying the world
- American civil rights movement was taking off
- Increase in globalization led to hybridity
- Much writing from this time period is neorealism, returning to addressing political and social issues

James Baldwin:

- 1924 to 1987
- Was African American, covered the troubles face by black people at the time
- Grew up in Harlem, moved to Manhattan (Greenwich Village aka The Village) where he discovered he was gay
- Arrested on false charges of theft, attempted suicide but failed, completed his first noval "Go Tell It On The Mountain" in 1953

Notes of a Native Son:

- Title is a reference to Native Son by Richard Wright
- Talks a lot about his dead father, feels somewhat conflicted. They didn't get along because they were both stubborn and prideful and they never spoke much. His father was in the first generation of free men after slavery.
- Discusses racial discrimination faced by narrator and black people in general
- Conflicted on how to feel about white people, hating them is too exhausting but loving them feels complacent and humiliating. Compares the situation to choosing between amputation and risking gangrene. Amputation might be swift but it might be a huge cost that turns out to not have been necessary, while gangrene is slow but it can poison your blood and kill you, and it's often unclear which is the worst option in the moment.

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