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 14
... associated with Black national- ism , they do not express a similar concern for the older , yet racially evocative term " Negro , " which comes from the Spanish for black and often associated with enslavement . 2 This struggle over ...
... associated with Black national- ism , they do not express a similar concern for the older , yet racially evocative term " Negro , " which comes from the Spanish for black and often associated with enslavement . 2 This struggle over ...
Page 18
... associated with the Negro , continued , there had to be new ways to suggest verisimilitude . 7 Claude McKay introduced his characters with colorful adjectives and , perhaps because of his Jamaican background , he labored to describe the ...
... associated with the Negro , continued , there had to be new ways to suggest verisimilitude . 7 Claude McKay introduced his characters with colorful adjectives and , perhaps because of his Jamaican background , he labored to describe the ...
Page 67
... associated with that older entertainment . That most studies of jazz have had little to say about the minstrel tradition , although they frequently pursue other questions of origins and sources ( spirituals , work songs , and even ...
... associated with that older entertainment . That most studies of jazz have had little to say about the minstrel tradition , although they frequently pursue other questions of origins and sources ( spirituals , work songs , and even ...
Contents
An Introduction to Passing | 1 |
Theme to Genre | 35 |
How White People Pass | 61 |
Copyright | |
3 other sections not shown
Other editions - View all
The Passing Figure: Racial Confusion in Modern American Literature Juda Bennett No preview available - 1998 |
Common terms and phrases
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