“Somebody Touched Me”: Disidentification, Conversion, and the Promise of Queer Transformation in James Baldwin’s Fiction

Abstract

ABSTRACT Through an examination of The Amen Corner and Just Above My Head, this essay explores James Baldwin’s disidentification with Christian conversion. According to queer theorist José Esteban Muñoz, to disidentify with an object is not to embrace (identify) or reject (counteridentify) a phenomenon, but it is a “working on, with, and against a cultural form.” In The Amen Corner Baldwin, to borrow the language of Muñoz, “transfigures” conversion from signifying the entry of a new convert into a life of faith, to reimagining conversion/salvation as the abandonment of Christian belief and the leaving of ecclesiastical community for the higher call of love. While in Just Above My Head, conversion is reinterpreted through the medium of queer sexual expression, which simultaneously sanctifies queer sexuality, while also utilizing the sex act as a fecund space for reimagining the sacred and salvation.