2016 marks the 60th anniversary of Giovanni’s Room, James Baldwin's claustrophobic 1956 novel about David who is engaged to Hella but falls in love with Giovanni:

“Those evenings were bitter. Giovanni knew that I was going to leave him but he did not dare accuse me for fear of being corroborated. I did not dare tell him. Hella was on her way back from Spain and my father had agreed to send me money, which I was not going to use to help Giovanni, who had done so much to help me. I was going to use it to escape his room.”

Our panel will take a closer look at Giovanni’s Room, and also discuss other aspects of Baldwin’s life and oeuvre, particularly The Fire Next Time and his engagement in the civil rights movement. 

To talk about James Baldwin we have invited Rebecca Scherr, Associate Professor in English Language Literature at the University of Oslo, and Michelle Tisdel, research librarian at the National Library of Norway. The conversation will be moderated by Andreas Breivik from Litteratur på Blå.

The conversation will be in English

CC: 50 kr.