Windows to the Future: Queer Utopia in the Works of James Baldwin Restricted; Files Only

Abstract

This thesis seeks to trace the ephemera of Munozian futurity through James Baldwin’s novels. Hinging on the productive space between queer negativity and queer utopianism, this thesis argues for an intervention into queer studies as it applies to literature and studies of the novel. In apprehension of critique, queer negativity is a generative force that breaks open conceptions of identity and sexuality. What follows after that break are the glimpses of futurity and webs of alternative intimacies that shape the social theory of Muñoz as well as academics working within Black critical theory, sociology, and even history today. This paper attends specifically to literature as a site of unsettling friction between social and antisocial theories, attesting to futurity’s capacity to move through pessimism as well as move through a text.

Chapter One of this thesis seeks to trace the evolution of queer negativity and queer utopianism not as oppositional forces but as frameworks built to converse with one another. Alongside a close reading of Baldwin’s essay “The Fire Next Time,” this chapter consider the importance of Black queer thought in formulations of utopia and alternative intimacies. Saidiya Hartman and Kevin Quashie create pockets of queer worldmaking unique to Blackness regardless of (and frequently disinterested in) formulations of sexual orientation. 

Chapter Two reconsiders the all-consuming negativity of Giovanni’s Room as a text rife with Muñozian potentiality. Despite the fact that David wrestles mightily with his attraction to men, there are brief moments that reach toward perfect queerness, wherein hope dovetails with despair in a utopian manner. This chapter draws upon Jose Esteban Muñoz’s Cruising Utopia to formulate despair, recognition, and fantasy as queer forces that ultimately serve futurity. 

Chapter Three analyzes the presence of ecstatic time and utopian possibility within Go Tell it on the Mountain, a work most often noted for its exploration of Black sociality and intergenerational trauma. This chapter argues that the church does not merely oppose or repress John’s burgeoning sexuality but rather provides an opening, or rather a new modality of being for Black sexuality as Baldwin describes it.

Table of Contents

Table of Contents 

Introduction: On Queer Potentiality and its Discontents…..pg. 1

On the Horizon: Black Queer Utopia and Literatures of Survival…..pg. 7

What We Do in the Shadows: Giovanni’s Room and Horizons of Potentiality……pg. 18

Waiting Up There: Annihilatory Pleasures and Anticipatory Illumination in “Go Tell it on the Mountain”..... pg. 33

Conclusion: Critical Worldmaking and the Case for Utopia…. pg. 48

About this Honors Thesis

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School	Emory College
Department	Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies
Degree	B.A.
Submission	Honors Thesis
Language	English
Research Field	African American Studies Women's Studies Literature, American
Parola chiave	queer utopia
Committee Chair / Thesis Advisor	Michelle Wright, Emory University
Committee Members	Mandy Suhr-Sytsma, Emory University Eleanor Craig, Emory University Spenser Feller, Emory University

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