Another Country
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Another Country
Immensely complex because of its size and scope, Another Country is James Baldwin's most ambitious novel. This novel of ideas covers myriad issues and themes, all related to the transcending power of love. Through interlocking events and episodes, Another Country critiques a “moral” and “democratic” America that fosters prejudice based on race, class, and sexuality. The author began writing it in the mid-1950s, completing it in Istanbul; Dial Press published the novel in 1962, and it became a best-seller.
Baldwin creates characters of various racial, sexual, and social backgrounds to illustrate how personal, cultural, and national identities intersect. We first encounter Rufus Scott, a black jazz musician and one of the novel's many artists. He mentally and physically abuses his lover Leona, a white Southerner who goes insane. Psychically and physically debilitated by a virulent self-hatred, Rufus portends America's fate if it continues to prevent people from connecting irrespective of differences. Baldwin uses Rufus's suicide as an ironic narrative device, for he permeates the novel and illuminates the characters’ wrenching attempts to come together. The phrase Rufus hears in a wailing saxophone, “Do you love me,” reverberates throughout the text.
The rest of the book concerns Ida, Rufus's sister and an aspiring singer; Vivaldo, Ida's lover, Rufus's best friend, and an aspiring novelist; Eric, a white actor from the South and Rufus's erstwhile lover who has fled to France; Yves, Eric's current lover; and Cass Silenski and her novelist husband Richard, both Vivaldo's friends. Purposely resisting a discernible plot, Baldwin's postmodernist text traverses spatial, temporal, and personal boundaries: the transatlantic setting includes Greenwich Village, Harlem, Alabama, and France; time vacillates between past and present; and characters who would be labeled straight or gay, black or white, male or female, rich or poor all commingle, albeit painfully. Redemption occurs only when one exorcises his or her demons, often rooted in the aforementioned oppositions. Baldwin's characters must divest themselves of “safe” distinctions—for instance, Vivaldo must atone for failing Rufus through a sexual union with Eric, the novel's unifying figure. Especially cogent is how Baldwin resists facile categories of “good” and “bad” characters: blacks and whites can alternatively be victims and victimizers. Apropos of his religious background, Baldwin posits that only through pain, suffering, and acceptance can one enter another country—a metaphoric utopia that eliminates artificial, socially constructed distinctions. The novel ends with Ida-Vivaldo and Eric-Yves tentatively reconciling.
Another Country remains both manifesto and cultural history, a document of the turbulent 1960s. The novel created controversy both critically and popularly: Robert Bone called it “a failure on the grand scale,” while citizens complained to J. Edgar Hoover about its “pornographic” content, which resulted in an FBI inquiry. But other critics such as Langston Hughes recognized the novel's “power,” the basis of which Baldwin himself elucidates:“… Another Country was harder and more challenging than anything I’d ever attempted, and I didn’t cheat in it” (Fred L. Standley and Louis H. Pratt, eds., Conversations with James Baldwin, 1989). Indeed, Baldwin's multicultural epic disrupts and challenges American racial and sexual discourse. As its continuing popularity attests, Another Country assiduously explores the conundrum of the self and its potential for love.
Bibliography
- Robert A. Bone, The Negro Novel in America, 1965.
- Louis H. Pratt, James Baldwin, 1978
Keith Clark
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Another Country
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Another Country (novel)
For other uses, see Another Country (disambiguation).
| Another Country | |
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 First edition cover |
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| Author(s) | James Baldwin |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Genre(s) | Novel |
| Publisher | Dial Press |
| Publication date | 1962 |
| Media type | Print (Hardcover, paperback) |
| Pages | 436 p |
| OCLC Number | 264020 |
Another Country is a 1962 novel by James Baldwin. The novel tells of the bohemian lifestyle of musicians, writers and other artists living in Greenwich Village in the late 1950s. It portrayed many taboo themes such as bisexuality, interracial couples and extramarital affairs.
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Contents
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Plot summary
The first fifth of Another Country tells of the downfall of jazz drummer Rufus Scott. Rufus begins a relationship with Leona, a white woman from the South and introduces her to his friends, including the struggling novelist Vivaldo, his more successful mentor Richard and Richard's wife Cass. Although the relationship is initially frivolous, it becomes serious and the two leave town for several weeks. Rufus is abusive towards Leona and she is eventually committed to a mental hospital and Rufus returns to Harlem in a deep depression. He commits suicide by jumping off the George Washington Bridge.
Rufus' friends cannot understand his suicide, but afterwards they become closer and Vivaldo begins a relationship with Rufus’ sister Ida, which is strained by racial tension and Ida's bitterness after her brother's death.
Eric, Rufus's first male lover and an actor, returns to New York after a stay in France where he met his longtime lover Yves. Eric returns to the novel's social circle but is more calm and composed than most of the clique. He also begins an affair with Cass, who has become lonely due to Richard's dedication to writing.
Themes
Internalized Racial Oppression
Because Rufus is living in a predominantly racist time era, his life is constantly affected by an internalization of this racism to the point where he hates himself. Throughout the novel, the effects of this internalized oppression is obvious: he is sexual with any person who is white--violently sexual, because he seeks power; he feels disappointed in himself because of his proud Black sister Ida.
Willing Ignorance
One of the most significant themes in Another Country is one's willingness to ignore parts of reality that he or she finds unpleasant. Vivaldo is perhaps the most affected by this tendency. He also denies his own bisexuality. He refuses to admit his attraction to Rufus. On the night of his death, Rufus went to Vivaldo and indicated a need for sexual love but Vivaldo pretended not to recognize this need and later feels guilty, suspecting that he could have prevented Rufus’ death. He also does not see that his attraction to Ida mirrors his attraction to Rufus.
On the opposite end of the spectrum, Eric is the novel's most honest and open character. He admits that Rufus was an abusive person, that his affair with Cass is frivolous and that his love of Yves is genuine. This also makes him the book's most calm and composed character and, only after a night with Eric, does Vivaldo see the world clearly.
Most of the white characters in the book refuse to admit the racial tension surrounding them. Cass and Richard are shocked when a group of black boys beat-up their sons. Ida constantly accuses Vivaldo of taking their relationship less seriously because she is black and has known white men who get a thrill out of sex with black women. Vivaldo refuses to admit any of this, although it is indicated that it may be true of their relationship.
Professional Jealousy
Richard and Vivaldo are jealous of one another. Vivaldo is jealous that Richard's novel is being published while Richard is jealous of Vivaldo because Richard sees suffering and a lack of commercial success as a sign of artistic integrity. Consequently, when Cass resumes her affair with Eric, Richard suspects she is seeing Vivaldo.
Also, Ida's success as a jazz singer causes increased tension between her and Vivaldo.
Background information
Baldwin started writing Another Country in Greenwich Village in 1948 and only completed it in Istanbul in 1962 - he had been working on it while in Paris in the 1950s.[1]
Literary significance and criticism
It has been argued that James Baldwin is in three characters : Rufus as Baldwin would have turned out had he not moved to France, Eric as Baldwin was in Paris, and Vivaldo as a writer struggling with a writer's block because of his love affairs, in the manner of Baldwin himself.[1]
It was listed by Anthony Burgess as one of his Ninety-nine Novels: The best in English since 1939.
References
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This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (January 2010) |
- ^ a b Dievler, James A. (1999). "Sexual Exiles: James Baldwin and Another Country". James Baldwin Now. New York: New York University Press. pp. 163, 173–181. ISBN 0-8147-5617-4.
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Oxford Companion to African American Literature
The Concise Oxford Companion to African American Literature. Copyright © 2001, 2002 by Oxford University Press, Inc. All rights reserved.
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