Intersectionalities of sexuality and race in Giovanni's Room by James Baldwin & Zami by Audre Lorde

Abstract

In Audre Lorde’s Zami: A New Spelling of My Name (Zami) and James Baldwin’s Giovanni’s Room, the intersectionalities of sexuality and race are most strikingly represented though sex scenes, the use of myth in Zami and the setting in Giovanni’s Room. Both these novels deal with the societal exclusion of the protagonists due to their racial and sexual identities. In Zami, there is an attempt to unify her identity as a Black lesbian despite the social alienation she faces, whereas in Giovanni’s Room, Baldwin portrays the internal conflict which David faces when he tries to embody his homosexual identity as a white American.