Sonia Brown

“Power, Play, and Perversion” examines how James Baldwin uses sadomasochism as a metaphor for the complexities of Black desire, vulnerability, and liberation. Moving beyond traditional readings of pain and pleasure as oppositional forces, this project argues that Baldwin reimagines the sadomasochistic dynamic as a site of power, performance, and spiritual revelation. Rather than framing these dynamics as pathological, Baldwin’s engagement with domination and submission is a means of negotiating intimacy and agency within conditions shaped by racial violence and social constraint. Drawing on Black feminist thought, queer theory, and affect studies, the study explores how Baldwin’s characters engage in acts of submission and domination to confront histories of racial trauma and to rework the terms of their relational lives. Through close readings of “Giovanni’s Room,” “Another Country,” and “Just Above My Head,” alongside archival research, “Power, Play, and Perversion” shows how Baldwin positions the erotic as a space where vulnerability and control are not opposites but interdependent forces. By centering perversion as a critical framework, this project not only reconsiders Baldwin’s treatment of desire, but also challenges readers to confront how power is lived, felt, and transformed through the intimate negotiations between pleasure and pain.