American literature - semináře - zápisy
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Spanned from about 1918 until the mid-1930s
The idea of the New Negro, who through intellect and production of literature, art, and music could challenge the pervading racism and stereotypes to promote progressive or socialist politics, and racial and social integration
Passing
Larsen had a similar experience as in the book
First published in 1929
Set primarily in the Harlem neighbourhood of New York City in the 1920s
The story centres on the reunion of two childhood friends—Clare Kendry and Irene Redfield
Praised for its complex depiction of race, gender and sexuality
In 1920s there were problems increasing (race mostly)
The title refers to the practice of "racial passing", and is a key element of the novel; Clare Kendry's attempt to pass as white for her husband, John (Jack) Bellew, is its most significant depiction in the novel, and a catalyst for the tragic events
Discussion over the crossing of racial boundaries, the so-called "color line" between blacks and whites
Anxiety was exacerbated by the Great Migration
Imposition in the early 20th century of the so-called one-drop rule (by which someone with even one ancestor of sub-Saharan-African origin was considered black) led to a hardening of racial lines that had historically been more fluid
Claims that 355,000 blacks had passed between 1900 and 1920
The 1925 legal trial known as the "Rhinelander Case" (or Rhinelander v. Rhinelander): "What if Bellew should divorce Clare? Could he? There was the Rhinelander case."
The tragic mulatto (also "mulatta" when referring to a woman) is a stock character in early African-American literature
Feelings of exclusion was portrayed as variably manifested in self-loathing, depression, alcoholism, sexual perversion, and attempts at suicide
Race - "merely a mechanism for setting the story in motion, sustaining the suspense, and bringing about the external circumstances for the story's conclusion.”
Identification trouble
Eugenics - assigns specific behavioural and physical traits to different distinctions of race, class, gender, and sexual identity.
Both physical and behavioural features of this ideology are discussed by the main characters in Passing, Irene and Clare
Sexuality - the objectification of the black women
"Sexual pleasure, especially for black women, leads to the dangers of domination in marriage, repeated pregnancy, or exploitation and loss of status."
Homoerotic subtext – both of them are women, same origin, question of feelings Irene had for Clare
Jealousy - Irene feels “dowdy and commonplace” in comparison to Clare, who she sees as “exquisite, golden, fragrant, flaunting.”
"She was caught between two allegiances, different, yet the same. Herself. Her race. Race! The thing that bound and suffocated her. Whatever steps she took, or if she took none at all, something would be crushed. A person or the race. Clare, herself, or the race. Or, it might be, all three. Nothing, she imagined, was ever more completely sardonic."