{"product_id":"james-baldwin-and-the-heavenly-christopher-z-hobson-9781611862898","title":"James Baldwin and the Heavenly City: Prophecy, Apocalypse, and Doubt","description":"Behind James Baldwin's uncanny ability to evoke a nation's crisis and potential hope lies his use of religious language to describe social and sexual transformation. The first study of its kind, \u003ci\u003eJames Baldwin and the Heavenly City\u003c\/i\u003e shows that Baldwin's novels use biblical ideas in partly but not fully secularized ways to express the possible human attainment of a new life embodying a real but undefinable holiness. Focusing on Baldwin's six novels, along with essays, stories, and drama, the book first shows Baldwin's method of recasting biblical and African American prophetic traditions to reveal their liberating core. It then examines several key themes: the prophet's selection, seen in Baldwin's debut novel, \u003ci\u003eGo Tell It on the Mountain\u003c\/i\u003e; the three linked ideas of prophetic art, the \"apocalyptic body,\" and the \"apocalyptic city,\" as presented in all his novels; and the polarity between prophecy and doubt, the subject of his last novel, \u003ci\u003eJust Above My Head\u003c\/i\u003e. This important work provides new readings of Baldwin's novels, reassesses his once-neglected later fiction, and shows Gospel music's centrality (with blues) in his fictional imagination. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e Christopher Z. Hobson\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-10:\u003c\/b\u003e 1611862892\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-13:\u003c\/b\u003e 9781611862898\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Michigan State University Press\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eLanguage:\u003c\/b\u003e English\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 08\/01\/2018\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 258\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFormat:\u003c\/b\u003e Hardcover\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 1.15lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 9.10h x 6.30w x 1.20d\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eReview Citation(s): \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eChoice\u003c\/i\u003e 02\/01\/2019","brand":"Christopher Z. Hobson","offers":[{"title":"Hardcover","offer_id":48659480183039,"sku":"9781611862898","price":39.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"url":"https:\/\/www.whiterainbookhouse.com\/products\/james-baldwin-and-the-heavenly-christopher-z-hobson-9781611862898","provider":"WR Book House","version":"1.0","type":"link"}