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
Results 1-3 of 18
Page 36
... critics , but most scholars avoid these options . Though these terms may be consid- ered ugly or awkward , they are more problematically ambiguous . One critic , in an attempt to speak of the passing figure without resorting to this ...
... critics , but most scholars avoid these options . Though these terms may be consid- ered ugly or awkward , they are more problematically ambiguous . One critic , in an attempt to speak of the passing figure without resorting to this ...
Page 55
... critics , such as Robert Stepto , Valerie Smith , and Houston Baker , who read the two texts together . My own interest in the relationship between Johnson's fiction and Du Bois's nonfiction highlights the New Negro's concern with ...
... critics , such as Robert Stepto , Valerie Smith , and Houston Baker , who read the two texts together . My own interest in the relationship between Johnson's fiction and Du Bois's nonfiction highlights the New Negro's concern with ...
Page
... Critic Circle Award for Criticism " No subject is more central to our on - going efforts to interpret American experience than that of ' boundaries ' and all the attempts they represent in distinction , containment , and exclusion . The ...
... Critic Circle Award for Criticism " No subject is more central to our on - going efforts to interpret American experience than that of ' boundaries ' and all the attempts they represent in distinction , containment , and exclusion . The ...
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