Belonging in Exile: James Baldwin in Paris

Abstract James Baldwin’s autobiographical essay “Equal in Paris” is a perceptive and often amusing account of the American writer’s first visit to Paris. An aspiring novelist who left America rage over his experience country’s injustice contempt toward Black Americans, Baldwin acutely aware racial prejudice majority white societies. He tells staying dilapidated hotel, being wrongly accused theft then imprisoned Paris jail for more than week Christmas. astute observations Parisian life its institutions, show how as American, he struggles understand this new cultural environment which like most Western societies, has own form racism. But also story an artist’s search intellectual home where can breathe freely write. His friendships with other artists about cosmopolitan European life, allow him assess what it means be This includes exploring those social attitudes that divide Europe are universal.