{"id":715,"date":"2021-05-06T13:01:30","date_gmt":"2021-05-06T17:01:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/jamesbaldwin\/?p=715"},"modified":"2021-05-06T13:03:23","modified_gmt":"2021-05-06T17:03:23","slug":"james-baldwin-and-james-baldwin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/jamesbaldwin\/2021\/05\/06\/james-baldwin-and-james-baldwin\/","title":{"rendered":"James Baldwin and James Baldwin"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

In My Dungeon Shook, <\/em>we glimpse a highly personal piece of Baldwin\u2019s writing. Unlike fiction such as Giovanni\u2019s Room <\/em>or many of his essays, this letter is directed simply to Baldwin\u2019s nephew, though it undoubtedly considers other audiences. Take the following line, for example: \u201cI hear the chorus of the innocents screaming, \u2018No! This is not true! How bitter<\/em> <\/em><\/strong>you are!\u2019\u2013\u2013but I am writing this letter to you, <\/em>to try to tell you something about how to handle them\u201d <\/em>(CE 292). Perhaps what makes this letter all the more personal is Baldwin\u2019s repeated invocation of his nephew\u2019s name: \u201cNow, my dear namesake\u2026Big James, named for me\u201d (292). In writing to his nephew, James Baldwin, James Baldwin draws on a semantic kinship between himself and his kin. This special semantic  connection between the two Jameses reiterates the importance of the individual as they are derivative of their ancestors. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Of course, all humans have a special connection to their ancestors. We are all \u201cdescendent\u201d in a particular and unique way, the embodiment of generations of struggles, chance happenings, etc. As Rae\u2019Vonne pointed out at the beginning of the semester, our ancestor\u2019s trauma is often encoded into our very DNA via epigenetics (our environment can turn certain genes \u201con\u201d and \u201coff\u201d). These are important facts of the human condition and individuality.\u00a0 <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Baldwin, whether deliberately or unintentionally, amplifies the interface between an individual and their ancestors by repeatedly focusing on the trauma, identities, and circumstances that he shares with his nephew. He writes, for example, \u201cI know your countrymen do not agree with me about this, and I hear them saying, \u2018You exaggerate.\u2019 They do not know Harlem, and I do. So do you\u201d (CE 293). This line is one of many instances in My Dungeon Shook<\/em> in which Baldwin reiterates the particular connection between himself and his nephew. Still, Baldwin does not believe that the semantic and experiential congruity between his life and his nephew\u2019s will necessarily lead his nephew James down the same path as he went. Baldwin has hope for his nephew\u2019s future, writing \u201cIf you know [from] whence you came, there is really no limit to where you can go\u201d (CE 293). Hence, even as Baldwin demonstrates the importance of the individual as descendent\u2013\u2013as he writes that he and his nephew \u201ccome from\u201d the same \u201csturdy peasant stock\u201d (CE 294)\u2013\u2013he conveys the possibility of breaking free from intergenerational sameness and from one\u2019s descent.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In My Dungeon Shook, we glimpse a highly personal piece of Baldwin\u2019s writing. Unlike fiction such as Giovanni\u2019s Room or many of his essays, this letter is directed simply to Baldwin\u2019s nephew, though it undoubtedly considers other audiences. Take the following line, for example: \u201cI hear the chorus of the innocents screaming, \u2018No! This is … Continue reading James Baldwin and James Baldwin<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3729,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[471414],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-715","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-native-son"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/jamesbaldwin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/715","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/jamesbaldwin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/jamesbaldwin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/jamesbaldwin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3729"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/jamesbaldwin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=715"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/jamesbaldwin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/715\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":717,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/jamesbaldwin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/715\/revisions\/717"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/jamesbaldwin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=715"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/jamesbaldwin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=715"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.nd.edu\/jamesbaldwin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=715"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}