Salvific Manhood

Ernest L. Gibson III is an associate professor of English and the director of Africana studies at Auburn University.

• INTRODUCTIONIn Search of the Fraternal: Towards a New Epistemology and Reading of James BaldwinCHAPTER ONE Wrestling for Salvation: Denial, Longing and the Beauty of Brotherhood in Go Tell It on the MountainCHAPTER TWO Flight, Freedom, and Abjection: Fractured Manhood and Tragic Love in Giovanni's RoomCHAPTER THREE Alone in the Absurd: The Trope of Tragic Black Manhood in Another CountryCHAPTER FOUR Theatrics of Mask-ulinity: Radical Male Intimacy and Black Power in Tell Me How Long the Train's Been GoneCHAPTER FIVE Concrete Jungles and the Carceral: Exploring Confinement and Imprisonment in If Beale Street Could TalkCONCLUSION‘Somewhere in That Wreckage': James Baldwin, Just Above My Head, and the Project of MythologizingBIBLIOGRAPHY

“Ernest L. Gibson III has given us a beautifully crafted, truly imaginative, and fresh approach to James Baldwin’s work. . . . [It] will be of interest to students and scholars of literary and cultural studies, queer studies, and even religious studies. This is truly an incredibly rich and creative work of scholarship that is not to be missed!”-Dwight A. McBride, coeditor of the James Baldwin Review“Salvific Manhood pioneers a timely and provocative discussion of James Baldwin’s revolutionary ideas on black masculinity. Professor Gibson reenvisions Baldwin’s novels through fraternal bonds between lovers, kin, and friends, elaborating politics of salvation that simultaneously trouble and bridge spirituality and the erotic.”-Magdalena J. Zaborowska, author of Me and My House: James Baldwin’s Last Decade in France