Here are some reading questions to help you think about the novel as you read it.

There was a lot of Giovanni’s Room reflected in our relationship.” The novel, which was published in 1956, is Baldwin’s gift to the French, as it was his only work ever set entirely in France: told in flashbacks, David, an American, meets Giovanni in Paris and falls in love with the Italian man, who works at a bar owned by Guillaume. “Giovanni’s Room” was Baldwin’s bastard child in the way he was a bastard child. Imagine the various publishers’ surprise when this novel of gay and bisexual love showed up over the transom.

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Giovanni's Room 2020-05-03 15:08 Their decisions are not really decisions at all—a real decision makes one humble, one knows that it is at the mercy of more things than can be named—but elaborate systems of evasion, of illusion, designed to make themselves and the world appear to be what they and the world are not.
Giovanni’s Room is a beautiful, fast-paced, poignant novel that examines the depths of self-denial a person can put themselves through when they cannot face who they truly are. It also shows the effects social alienation has on these individuals as they come into themselves bit by bit—their triumphs, their failures, and ultimately the.
Giovanni’s room being situated at a remote location from the main city of Paris signifies the almost too good to be true and out of the world experience they enjoy inside it. They make love that night in the unruly room of Giovanni’s that put strange order to David’s mind which feels it has the liberty to flourish.

Interestingly, Giovanni’s Room is the only one of Baldwin’s novels without an African American character, even though it has autobiographical connections (Giovanni is based on a young Swiss man Baldwin himself met in Paris, Lucien Happersberger). Do you think this is significant for the topic of the novel, or not? Why or why not?
What are the main points of crisis for the narrator (David) as he comes to terms with his own homosexuality—what is he most conflicted about? Think not only about his own desires and feelings (Joey, Giovanni) but also the role other characters such as Jacques, Guillaume, his father, Hella, and others play as embodiments of certain fears and conflicts in David. Make sure to mark passages that seem particularly important.
In the 19^th-century and early 20^th-century texts, we talked about the Hellenizing discourse of beauty (Greek culture and homosexuality as a haven for imagining and beautifying queerness). There are some moments of great beauty in this text (language, imagery). What are some of them, for you? Why and how do they strike you as beautiful? Are these moments related to sexuality?
What are some blatantly homophobic passages, and how are they related to David’s development in the novel? What purpose do they serve? Make sure you find at least two good examples.
There are some interesting passages about being an American (as opposed to being French, Italian, etc.). Pay some attention to these. What relation do they have to the main themes of the novel, homosexuality and coming of age?
Think about the main metaphor of the title: Giovanni’s room. What symbolic role might this room play in the novel? How does this “room” relate to another main theme of the novel, that of being/coming/being away from/making a “home”?
What other largely symbolic themes and images do you find in this novel, especially related to water and to stagnation/inaction/emptiness? How might these be connected to the overall themes of a search for identity, self-denial, and the notion of “home”?
What is Hella’s role, overall? Would it be a stretch to compare hers to Sibyl Vane’s in The Picture of Dorian Gray? How does/doesn’t the analogy work?
What is the role of class?
What is the role of aging/aged gay men, especially Jacques and Guillaume, especially in relation to the young men they meet and woo? What gaps and hierarchies does that reveal within the gay male community, as it’s being depicted here? What does all this have to do with the crime that happens later in the novel?
Overall, what sorts of contribution has Baldwin made to the developments of queer literature, as we have traced it in this course so far? How does it reveal both a new step (progress) in depicting homosexuality in literature, and carry the burden of queer literature’s past?
How does this novel address transgression and taboo (to follow up on our discussion of that with the Tim Dean article last week)?
What do you personally think of the ending of this book? What “lessons” do you think readers could possibly take away from it?

Here are some reading questions to help you think about the novel as you read it.

Giovanni 27s Rooms

Interestingly, Giovanni’s Room is the only one of Baldwin’s novels without an African American character, even though it has autobiographical connections (Giovanni is based on a young Swiss man Baldwin himself met in Paris, Lucien Happersberger). Do you think this is significant for the topic of the novel, or not? Why or why not?
What are the main points of crisis for the narrator (David) as he comes to terms with his own homosexuality—what is he most conflicted about? Think not only about his own desires and feelings (Joey, Giovanni) but also the role other characters such as Jacques, Guillaume, his father, Hella, and others play as embodiments of certain fears and conflicts in David. Make sure to mark passages that seem particularly important.
In the 19^th-century and early 20^th-century texts, we talked about the Hellenizing discourse of beauty (Greek culture and homosexuality as a haven for imagining and beautifying queerness). There are some moments of great beauty in this text (language, imagery). What are some of them, for you? Why and how do they strike you as beautiful? Are these moments related to sexuality?
What are some blatantly homophobic passages, and how are they related to David’s development in the novel? What purpose do they serve? Make sure you find at least two good examples.
There are some interesting passages about being an American (as opposed to being French, Italian, etc.). Pay some attention to these. What relation do they have to the main themes of the novel, homosexuality and coming of age?
Think about the main metaphor of the title: Giovanni’s room. What symbolic role might this room play in the novel? How does this “room” relate to another main theme of the novel, that of being/coming/being away from/making a “home”?
What other largely symbolic themes and images do you find in this novel, especially related to water and to stagnation/inaction/emptiness? How might these be connected to the overall themes of a search for identity, self-denial, and the notion of “home”?
What is Hella’s role, overall? Would it be a stretch to compare hers to Sibyl Vane’s in The Picture of Dorian Gray? How does/doesn’t the analogy work?
What is the role of class?
What is the role of aging/aged gay men, especially Jacques and Guillaume, especially in relation to the young men they meet and woo? What gaps and hierarchies does that reveal within the gay male community, as it’s being depicted here? What does all this have to do with the crime that happens later in the novel?
Overall, what sorts of contribution has Baldwin made to the developments of queer literature, as we have traced it in this course so far? How does it reveal both a new step (progress) in depicting homosexuality in literature, and carry the burden of queer literature’s past?
How does this novel address transgression and taboo (to follow up on our discussion of that with the Tim Dean article last week)?
What do you personally think of the ending of this book? What “lessons” do you think readers could possibly take away from it?

Giovanni%27s Room