Jarrett/A Companion to African American Literature, 2010
Page 1. 26 African American Literature and Queer Studies: The Conundrum of James Baldwin Guy Mark... more Page 1. 26 African American Literature and Queer Studies: The Conundrum of James Baldwin Guy Mark Foster ... Emmanuel Nelson ' s The Novels of James Baldwin: Struggles of Self Accep-tance (1985) is an early, but notable, example of this type of critical engagement. ...
Global appropriations of US-derived understandings of how gender and sexuality operate as categor... more Global appropriations of US-derived understandings of how gender and sexuality operate as categories of human experience have acquired a special resonance these days. The revelation in May 2004 that US military personnel brutally tortured Iraqi male prisoners of war by employing antihomosexual taunts has placed our country’s gender and sexual norms at the center of contemporary discourse. Moreover, these revelations appear to implicate contemporary gay men’s own marginalization as persecuted sexual minorities in ways that, to one scholar in particular, “reads as an orientalist projection that conveys much more about the constraints and imaginaries of identity in the ‘West’ than anything else.”2 Indeed, as we will see shortly, not only have some gay male commentators argued that the armed forces’ use of simulated forms of male-male sexuality as a method of torture strategically plays upon US gay men’s (especially white gay men’s) own identifications and desires in the service of a broad policy of national defense, but such views have sometimes also been held by those who are not gay men, and who are in fact hostile to homosexuality altogether.3
This essay argues that the 2005 documentary Ring of Fire: The Emile Griffith Story uses narrative... more This essay argues that the 2005 documentary Ring of Fire: The Emile Griffith Story uses narrative strategies that link it with the 2004 Abu Ghraib abuse scandal. The film tells the story of a Caribbean-born boxer who killed his Cuban-born opponent in the ring for allegedly calling him a homosexual. However, corroborating evidence of Griffith's homosexuality is as scanty in the documentary as it is in the boxer's life. Like the absent sexualities of actual gay men in the Iraqi scandal, Griffith's absent sexuality in the film relies problematically on a conceptual confusion between gender and sexuality.
Guy Mark Foster is Assistant Professor of English at Bowdoin College. He teaches courses that exp... more Guy Mark Foster is Assistant Professor of English at Bowdoin College. He teaches courses that explore the messy intersec-tions of race, gender, and sexuality. His current book project is entitled Waking Up With the Enemy: Rereading Interracial Desire in Postwar African American ...
Jarrett/A Companion to African American Literature, 2010
Page 1. 26 African American Literature and Queer Studies: The Conundrum of James Baldwin Guy Mark... more Page 1. 26 African American Literature and Queer Studies: The Conundrum of James Baldwin Guy Mark Foster ... Emmanuel Nelson ' s The Novels of James Baldwin: Struggles of Self Accep-tance (1985) is an early, but notable, example of this type of critical engagement. ...
Global appropriations of US-derived understandings of how gender and sexuality operate as categor... more Global appropriations of US-derived understandings of how gender and sexuality operate as categories of human experience have acquired a special resonance these days. The revelation in May 2004 that US military personnel brutally tortured Iraqi male prisoners of war by employing antihomosexual taunts has placed our country’s gender and sexual norms at the center of contemporary discourse. Moreover, these revelations appear to implicate contemporary gay men’s own marginalization as persecuted sexual minorities in ways that, to one scholar in particular, “reads as an orientalist projection that conveys much more about the constraints and imaginaries of identity in the ‘West’ than anything else.”2 Indeed, as we will see shortly, not only have some gay male commentators argued that the armed forces’ use of simulated forms of male-male sexuality as a method of torture strategically plays upon US gay men’s (especially white gay men’s) own identifications and desires in the service of a broad policy of national defense, but such views have sometimes also been held by those who are not gay men, and who are in fact hostile to homosexuality altogether.3
This essay argues that the 2005 documentary Ring of Fire: The Emile Griffith Story uses narrative... more This essay argues that the 2005 documentary Ring of Fire: The Emile Griffith Story uses narrative strategies that link it with the 2004 Abu Ghraib abuse scandal. The film tells the story of a Caribbean-born boxer who killed his Cuban-born opponent in the ring for allegedly calling him a homosexual. However, corroborating evidence of Griffith's homosexuality is as scanty in the documentary as it is in the boxer's life. Like the absent sexualities of actual gay men in the Iraqi scandal, Griffith's absent sexuality in the film relies problematically on a conceptual confusion between gender and sexuality.
Guy Mark Foster is Assistant Professor of English at Bowdoin College. He teaches courses that exp... more Guy Mark Foster is Assistant Professor of English at Bowdoin College. He teaches courses that explore the messy intersec-tions of race, gender, and sexuality. His current book project is entitled Waking Up With the Enemy: Rereading Interracial Desire in Postwar African American ...
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