Platonic Love and Brechtian Techniques in James Baldwin’s ‘The Amen Corner’ and ‘Blues for Mister Charlie’

Abstract

This article seeks to explore the way James Baldwin uses Platonic love and Brechtian techniques in his two plays The Amen Corner (1968a) first performed in1955 and Blues for Mister Charlie (1964a) to express his personal and racial concerns. It aims at demonstrating that Baldwin’s plays belong to the Western epic theatre at the level of form and are platonic at the level of content in their conception of love. The Amen Corner recalls in many aspects Plato’s dialogue Symposium (2008) in which the participants provide their definition of love trying to displace, provoke and collectively search for truth in a process of a dialogic interaction. His play Blues for Mister Charlie is not only a black church ritual but it is written according to the Western epic theatrical tradition as designed by Bertolt Brecht. Keywords : James Baldwin, Religious / Platonic love, Epic / Brechtian Techniques, African American theatre.