Of Latitudes Unknown

<i>Of Latitudes Unknown</i>is a multi-faceted study of James Baldwin's radical imagination. It is a selective and thoughtful survey that re-investigates the grounds of Baldwin studies and provides new critical approaches subjects and orientations for Baldwin criticism.<br/> <br/> This volume joins recent critical collections in un-fragmenting Baldwin and establishing further conjunctions in his work: the essay and the novel; the polemical and the aesthetic; his use of and participation in visual forms; and his American as well as international identities. But it goes beyond other recent studies by focusing on new entities of Baldwin's radical imagination: his English and French language selves; his late encounters with Africa; his appearances on French television and interviews with French journalists; and his unrecognized literary journalism. <i>Of Latitudes Unknown</i> also addresses Baldwin's relations with the Arab world his anticipation of contemporary film and media studies and his paradoxical public intellectualism. <br/> <br/> As it reassesses Baldwin's contributions to and influences on world literary history <i>Of Latitudes Unknown</i>equally explores why the critical appreciation of Baldwin's writing continues to flourish and why it remains a vast territory whose parts lie open to much deeper exploration and elaboration.