Racism And Homosexuality: A Scrutiny Of James Baldwin’s Select Novels

James Baldwin was a novelist and social critic from the United States of America. He was an illegitimate black child. With his works, however, he became a well-known writer in bisexual and LGBT African American literature. Go Tell It on the Mountain, Another Country, Giovanni’s Room, Tell Me How Long the Train Been Gone, Just Above My Head, and If Beale Street Could Talk are among Baldwin’s best-known works. This research article aims to demonstrate how homosexuality is shown in James Baldwin’s works. In the first novel, Baldwin carefully investigated and camouflaged the homosexual issue through John, who was searching for his identity, whereas homosexuality was clearly presented in Giovanni’s Room. Because of the success of Giovanni’s Room as a gay and white novel, Baldwin decided to make homosexuality the central focus of his succeeding works. As a result, Baldwin paved the way for the next generation of homosexual authors to research and discusses LGBT themes in his writings. Journal of University of Shanghai for Science and Technology ISSN: 1007-6735 Volume