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Work #1605 · Late

No Name in the Street

James Baldwin
1972 · English
Memoir-essay · African-American essayism / mid-century US political writing

Baldwin's 1972 'No Name in the Street' — late-Baldwin reflection on the close of the civil-rights era

Attribute Fingerprint

Rows where works disagree are highlighted in gold. The full ontology grid is shown.

Attribute No Name in the Street (Late)
Time · Extent Finite
Time · Ontological Status Substantival
Time · Grain Continuous
Time · Freedom Non-Deterministic
Time · Traversability Linear
Time · Dimensionality One
Time · Direction Uni-directional
Space · Extent Finite
Space · Ontological Status Substantival
Space · Curvature Flat
Space · Dimensionality Three
Space · Locality Local
Matter · Extent Finite
Matter · Ontological Status Substantival
Matter · Conservation Conserved
Matter · Dimensionality Three
Matter · Locality Local
Observer · Time Instance Single
Observer · Space Instance Single
Observer · Knowledge Extent Immediate
Observer · Knowledge Retainment Partial
Observer · Physicality Both
Observer · Agency Active
Observer · Number Plural
Observer · Metaphysical Agency Impersonal
Observer · Moral Authority Reason
Observer · Theological Method —
Energy · Extent Finite
Energy · Ontological Status Substantival
Energy · Conservation Conserved
Energy · Dispersibility Irreversible
Information · Ontological Status Substantival
Information · Cosmic Conservation Conserved
Information · Personal Conservation Conserved
Information · Granularity Continuous

Dimension-by-Dimension Evidence

What each work's passages reveal about its stance on each of the six dimensions.

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Time

No Name in the Street

1972 publication. Baldwin was 48, four years after the King assassination and one year after his move to St-Paul-de-Vence.

✦

Space

No Name in the Street

St-Paul-de-Vence (composition) / American memory (subject). The geographical distance between Baldwin's residence and his subject-matter is itself thematic.

◉

Matter

No Name in the Street

Memoir-essay (~200 pages). Form is essayistic-reflective, with autobiographical and political registers interwoven.

◎

Observer

No Name in the Street

Late Baldwin. The observer-essayist is the established American essayist at a moment of transition from the high-civil-rights-movement-prophetic register of 'The Fire Next Time' (1963) to a more meditative, elegiac register.

⚡

Energy

No Name in the Street

Elegiac-political energies. The book combines mourning (for the murdered civil-rights leaders) with continuing political-analytical reflection.

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Information

No Name in the Street

Single memoir. The personal-political integration is the book's distinctive informational structure.

Internal Tensions

Where each work's argument pulls against itself.

No Name in the Street

Late-Baldwin reflection on the close of the civil-rights era. The book has been continuously read in subsequent African-American political-philosophical scholarship; Ta-Nehisi Coates and Eddie Glaude Jr. have cited it as the principal source for Baldwin's late political consciousness.