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"Stranger in the Village" is an essay by African-American novelist James Baldwin about his experiences in Leukerbad, Switzerland, after he nearly suffered a breakdown. The essay was originally published in Harper's Magazine, October 1953, and later in his 1955 collection, Notes of a Native Son.
- James Baldwin
- 1953
Stranger in the Village Lyrics. From all available evidence no black man had ever set foot in this tiny Swiss village before I came.
Aug 19, 2014 · “Stranger in the Village” first appeared in Harper’s Magazine in 1953, and then in the essay collection “Notes of a Native Son,” in 1955. It recounts the experience of being black in an all-white...
Everyone in the village knows Baldwin’s name and knows that he is friends with a local woman and her son in whose chalet he is staying. However, he remains a “stranger” in the eyes of the village, evidenced by the little children who shout “ Neger! Neger! ” when he passes.
This essay begins by describing a small village (Leukerbad) in Switzerland where Baldwin stayed in the early 1950s. Before visiting this village, he had not realized that there were places in the world where no one had ever seen a black person.
“Stranger in the Village” is an argumentative essay in which Baldwin makes a compelling case for the uniqueness of race relations in the US. He asserts that the sole way forward is for white people to abandon their illusions of innocence and acknowledge the United States’ mixed racial existence.
James Baldwin’s essay, “Stranger in the Village,” examines the author’s experiences in a Swiss village in order to shed light on racism in the United States. Baldwin (1924-1987) was an influential African American essayist, novelist, and short story writer.
