Face Reading
Abstract
Abstract This article investigates how James Baldwin utilizes the practice of face reading as a narrative drive in If Beale Street Could Talk (1974). Analyzing instances in which characters read one another’s faces, I show how the novel employs certain “cultural scripts” that predetermine how faces are read. The text spotlights an extensive history of practices in physiognomy and criminology that have found their way into racial profiling. I argue that the novel exposes and rejects face reading, thus reframing how faciality operates in the dominant discourses of literary modernism. The novel employs ambiguity in face readings, ultimately underscoring the right to facial opacity.
Fields of Study & Subjects
Modernist Literature and Criticism
American and British Literature Analysis
American Literature and Culture
Publication details
- Journal / source
- Journal of World Literature
- Volume
- 11
- Issue
- 1
- Pages
- 95–114
- Publication date
- 11 February 2026
- Language
- EN