The Passing Figure: Racial Confusion in Modern American LiteraturePeter Lang, 1996 - 142 pages How and when does literature most effectively uncover race to be a mataphor? The passing figure, a light-skinned African-American capable and willing to pass for white, provides the thematic focus to this provocative study. In exploring the social and cultural history of this distinctly American phenomenon, Bennett moves freely between literature, film, and music, arguing that the passing figure is crucial to our understanding of past and present conceptions of race. |
From inside the book
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Page 24
... Larson's characters argue what remains implicit in satire . Using twin characters , who can both pass , Larson creates a dialectic between the racial transgressor and the racial conservator . Irene , a " voluntary Negro , ” haunts Clare ...
... Larson's characters argue what remains implicit in satire . Using twin characters , who can both pass , Larson creates a dialectic between the racial transgressor and the racial conservator . Irene , a " voluntary Negro , ” haunts Clare ...
Page 48
... Larson's novel and most passing narratives : 1 ) a “ chiascuro ” or “ Manichean ” style that depicts the world primarily in “ black ” and “ white , " with particular attention to skin and eye color ; 2 ) a polemics concerned with racial ...
... Larson's novel and most passing narratives : 1 ) a “ chiascuro ” or “ Manichean ” style that depicts the world primarily in “ black ” and “ white , " with particular attention to skin and eye color ; 2 ) a polemics concerned with racial ...
Page 54
... Larson's Passing doubles the evasion by death of the tragic mulatto , at the same time that it revises the unambiguous ending familiar to us . This ending may suggest Larson's attraction for a very modernist sense of indeterminacy , but ...
... Larson's Passing doubles the evasion by death of the tragic mulatto , at the same time that it revises the unambiguous ending familiar to us . This ending may suggest Larson's attraction for a very modernist sense of indeterminacy , but ...
Contents
An Introduction to Passing | 1 |
Theme to Genre | 35 |
How White People Pass | 61 |
Copyright | |
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Other editions - View all
The Passing Figure: Racial Confusion in Modern American Literature Juda Bennett No preview available - 1998 |
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African-American American argues associated attention authors become beginning black and white body Bois Brown Butterfly called century chapter characters color concerned construction continue Craft created critics culture dark defined definition despite earlier early escape event examine explore familiar Faulkner fiction gender genre Harlem idea identity importance interest introduced Irene jazz Joe Christmas Julie larger Larson's less Light in August literature live look meaning metaphor minstrelsy movie mulatto narrator Negro never nigger nomenclature novel offers passing figure passing narratives past performance perhaps person play plot present problem provides question race racial racist reader recent refer Renaissance replaces representations representative requires satire scene seems sexuality Show Boat significant simply singing slave songs specifically story struggle success suggest tell theme thought tradition University Press writing written York