Tough Love: James Baldwin’s Artistic Politics

Political theory, and American political thought especially, has recently seen a surge in scholarship on James Baldwin. This article combines two threads in Baldwin scholarship concerning self-knowledge and the political importance of love and argues that only such a synthesis makes Baldwin's thought clear. We ought to recognize that Baldwin' quintessential action of love is a confrontation that is inextricable from the liberating power of self-examination. Love becomes political through the artist, who functions as a lover for society at large. I develop my account of Baldwin's political love by examining his nonfiction, and I demonstrate Baldwin's commitment to this vision with an analysis of his often-overlooked play Blues for Mister Charlie. Baldwin's connection between love, politics, and art is especially relevant to considerations of the ongoing crises of race in America, but it also speaks more broadly to questions raised by the democratic tension between inclusion and exclusion.