James Baldwin's Turkish Decade: Erotics of Exile

Magdalena J. Zaborowska

Published by Duke University Press 2008

James Baldwin's Turkish Decade

Erotics of Exile

Magdalena J. Zaborowska

In the series e-Duke books scholarly collection

https://doi.org/10.1515/9780822392408

Overview
Contents

About this book

Shows that the decade Baldwin spent in Turkey is crucial to evaluating his contribution to American letters, especially to understanding the interdependence of race and the erotic in constructions of American identity.

Author / Editor information

Magdalena J. Zaborowska is Associate Professor in the Program in American Culture and the Center for Afroamerican and African Studies at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. She is the author of How We Found America: Reading Gender through East-European Immigrant Narratives; the editor of Other Americans, Other Americas: The Politics and Poetics of Multiculturalism; and a co-editor of Over the Wall/After the Fall: Post-Communist Cultures Through an East-West Gaze and The Puritan Origins of American Sex: Religion, Sexuality, and National Identity in American Literature.

Reviews

“Of central importance is how Baldwin's so-called Turkish exile helped distance him from, while also focusing, his massive contradictions within a society of contradictions. . . . . Zaborowska . . . displays the fascinating, delicious thrill she received from the people she interviewed.” - Publishers Weekly

“Zaborowska is a charming companion as she follows Baldwin’s steps through Turkey, brimming with enthusiasm at the sights and at the warmth of her reception by his friends. . . . [S[he makes us feel how necessary such a refuge was as the sixties wore on.” - Claudia Roth Pierpont, The New Yorker

“[I]nformative and enlightening. . . . Zaborowska’s work will appeal to fans of Baldwin looking for an interesting take on the man’s life. . . . Her dedication and passion does shine through in the time and effort she placed in writing this book. . . .” - Derek Beres, Popmatters

“Zaborowska takes great delight in detailing her subject's adventures in Turkey, vicariously bathing in the limelight of a distinguished, outspoken writer who pushed boundaries well before his time, and graced the homosexual world with writing that transcended both color and gender lines.” - Jim Piechota, Bay Area Reporter

“[Zaborowska] scours [Baldwin’s] works for hints of Istanbul; she visits his stomping grounds and entertainingly interviews various Turkish luminaries. . . . [H]er reporting reveals as much about Turkey as it does about Baldwin, as well as the connections between this fledgling nation and the growing shadow America had begun to cast across the globe.” - Suzy Hansen, The National (Abu Dhabi)

“Zaborowska’s book will make you want to reread Another Country and his later works with a new context of understanding. The book illuminates, with a scholar’s focus and a writer’s nuance, how Baldwin’s exile in Istanbul was not simply a theme or escape from the racism and homophobia of the U.S., but also a deeply felt condition crucial to his intellectual and creative imagination. Indeed, the book reminds us that some of the most poignant and insightful writings about sexuality and race in the canon of American literature were composed well beyond our shores.” - James Polchin, Gay and Lesbian Review/Worldwide

“Zaborowska’s determined research and sharp interpretations recast Baldwin’s entire life project and show how his Turkish sojourn rendered American conceptions of sexuality, race, and citizenship more clearly. [A] beautifully imagined book. . . . Zaborowska shows the discontiguous routes of one particular writer to that destination and beyond it. In doing so, she reminds us that often the destination is as displaced as the traveler.”
- Shane Vogel, American Literature

“Magdalena Zaborowska persuasively argues that Baldwin’s Turkish years—1961 and 1971—are key to understanding his career. . . . I found her deceptively simple argument arresting: although the broad outlines of Baldwin’s Turkish years are well known, to date, no scholar has set out to foreground place and atmosphere of composition so extensively.” - Tavia Nyong'o, American Quarterly

“[I]nformative and enlightening. . . . Zaborowska’s work will appeal to fans of Baldwin looking for an interesting take on the man’s life. . . . Her dedication and passion does shine through in the time and effort she placed in writing this book. . . .”

-- Derek Beres Popmatters

“[Zaborowska] scours [Baldwin’s] works for hints of Istanbul; she visits his stomping grounds and entertainingly interviews various Turkish luminaries. . . . Her reporting reveals as much about Turkey as it does about Baldwin, as well as the connections between this fledgling nation and the growing shadow America had begun to cast across the globe.”

-- Suzy Hansen The National

“Magdalena Zaborowska persuasively argues that Baldwin’s Turkish years—1961 and 1971—are key to understanding his career. . . . I found her deceptively simple argument arresting: although the broad outlines of Baldwin’s Turkish years are well known, to date, no scholar has set out to foreground place and atmosphere of composition so extensively.”

-- Tavia Nyong'o American Quarterly

“Of central importance is how Baldwin's so-called Turkish exile helped distance him from, while also focusing, his massive contradictions within a society of contradictions. . . . . Zaborowska . . . displays the fascinating, delicious thrill she received from the people she interviewed.”

-- Publishers Weekly

“Zaborowska is a charming companion as she follows Baldwin’s steps through Turkey, brimming with enthusiasm at the sights and at the warmth of her reception by his friends. . . . [S[he makes us feel how necessary such a refuge was as the sixties wore on.”

-- Claudia Roth Pierpont The New Yorker

“Zaborowska takes great delight in detailing her subject's adventures in Turkey, vicariously bathing in the limelight of a distinguished, outspoken writer who pushed boundaries well before his time, and graced the homosexual world with writing that transcended both color and gender lines.”

-- Jim Piechota Bay Area Reporter

“Zaborowska’s book will make you want to reread Another Country and his later works with a new context of understanding. The book illuminates, with a scholar’s focus and a writer’s nuance, how Baldwin’s exile in Istanbul was not simply a theme or escape from the racism and homophobia of the U.S., but also a deeply felt condition crucial to his intellectual and creative imagination. Indeed, the book reminds us that some of the most poignant and insightful writings about sexuality and race in the canon of American literature were composed well beyond our shores.”

-- James Polchin Gay & Lesbian Review

“Zaborowska’s determined research and sharp interpretations recast Baldwin’s entire life project and show how his Turkish sojourn rendered American conceptions of sexuality, race, and citizenship more clearly. [A] beautifully imagined book. . . . Zaborowska shows the discontiguous routes of one particular writer to that destination and beyond it. In doing so, she reminds us that often the destination is as displaced as the traveler.”

-- Shane Vogel American Literature

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	vii
List of Illustrations Publicly Available Download PDF	ix
Preface: Sightings Publicly Available Download PDF	xiii
Acknowledgments Publicly Available Download PDF	xxv
Introduction: From Harlem to Istanbul Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
one. Between Friends: Looking for Baldwin in Constantinople Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	31
two. Queer Orientalisms in Another Country Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	91
three. Staging Masculinity in Düşenin Dostu Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	141
four. East to South: Homosexual Panic, the Old Country, and No Name in the Street Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	197
Conclusion: Welcome Tables East and West Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	249
Notes Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	265
Bibliography Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	331
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	359

Language: English
Publisher: Duke University Press
Audience: Professional and scholarly;
Pages
- Main content: 412
Illustrations
- Other: 53 illustrations, 2 maps

eBook

Published: January 16, 2009
ISBN: 9780822392408