Passing Novels in the Harlem Renaissance
Title | Passing Novels in the Harlem Renaissance PDF eBook |
Author | María del Mar Gallego Durán |
Publisher | LIT Verlag Münster |
Pages | 226 |
Release | 2003 |
Genre | History |
ISBN | 9783825858421 |
This book offers an insightful study of the significance of passing novels for the literary and intellectual debate of the Harlem Renaissance. Author Mar Gallego effectively uncovers the presence of a subversive component in five of these novels (by James Weldon Johnson, George Schuyler, Nella Larsen, and Jessie Fauset), turning them into useful tools to explore the passing phenomenon in all its richness and complexity. Her compelling study intends to contribute to the ongoing revision of the parameters conventionally employed to analyze passing novels by drawing attention to a great variety of textual strategies such as double consciousness, parody, and multiple generic covers. Examining the hybrid nature of these texts, Gallego skillfully highlights their radical critique of the status quo and their celebration of a distinct African American identity. Well researched and stimulating to read, Passing Novels in the Harlem Renaissance is an impressive work of scholarship and interpretat
Passing
Title | Passing PDF eBook |
Author | Nella Larsen |
Publisher | Alien Ebooks |
Pages | 159 |
Release | 2022 |
Genre | Fiction |
ISBN | 166762265X |
Harlem Renaissance author Nella Larsen (1891 –1964) published just two novels and three short stories in her lifetime, but achieved lasting literary acclaim. Her classic novel Passing first appeared in 1926.
Passing and the Rise of the African American Novel
Title | Passing and the Rise of the African American Novel PDF eBook |
Author | Maria Giulia Fabi |
Publisher | University of Illinois Press |
Pages | 210 |
Release | 2001 |
Genre | Literary Criticism |
ISBN | 9780252026676 |
Passing and the Rise of the African American Novel restores to its rightful place a body of American literature that has long been overlooked, dismissed, or misjudged. This insightful reconsideration of nineteenth-century African-American fiction uncovers the literary artistry and ideological complexity of a body of work that laid the foundation for the Harlem Renaissance and changed the course of American letters. Focusing on the trope of passing -- black characters lightskinned enough to pass for white -- M. Giulia Fabi shows how early African-American authors such as William Wells Brown, Frank J. Webb, Charles W. Chesnutt, Sutton E. Griggs, James Weldon Johnson, Frances E. W. Harper, and Edward A. Johnson transformed traditional representations of blackness and moved beyond the tragic mulatto motif. Celebrating a distinctive, African-American history, culture, and worldview, these authors used passing to challenge the myths of racial purity and the color line. Fabi examines how early black writers adapted existing literary forms, including the sentimental romance, the domestic novel, and the utopian novel, to express their convictions and concerns about slavery, segregation, and racism. She also gives a historical overview of the canon-making enterprises of African-American critics from the 1850s to the 1990s and considers how their concerns about crafting a particular image for African-American literature affected their perceptions of nineteenth-century black fiction.
Nella Larsen, Novelist of the Harlem Renaissance
Title | Nella Larsen, Novelist of the Harlem Renaissance PDF eBook |
Author | Thadious M. Davis |
Publisher | LSU Press |
Pages | 524 |
Release | 1996-05-01 |
Genre | Literary Criticism |
ISBN | 9780807120705 |
Nella Larsen (1891–1964) is recognized as one of the most influential, and certainly one of the most enigmatic, writers of the Harlem Renaissance. With the instant success of her two novels, Quicksand (1928) and Passing (1929), she became a bright light in New York’s literary firmament. But her meteoric rise was followed by a surprising fall: In 1930 she was accused of plagiarizing a short story, and after 1933 she disappeared from both the literary and African-American worlds of New York. She lived the rest of her life—more than three decades—out of the public eye, working primarily as a nurse. In a remarkable achievement, Thadious Davis has penetrated the fog of mystery that has surrounded Larsen to present a detailed and fascinating account of the life and work of this gifted, determined, yet vulnerable artist. In addition to unraveling the details of Larsen’s personal life, Davis deftly situates the writer within the broader politics and aesthetics of the Harlem Renaissance and analyzes her life and work in terms of the current literature on race and gender. This book, with the prodigious amount of new material and insights that Davis provides, is a landmark in African-American literary history and criticism.
Quicksand
Title | Quicksand PDF eBook |
Author | Nella Larsen |
Publisher | Union Square & Co. |
Pages | 124 |
Release | 2024-05-21 |
Genre | Fiction |
ISBN | 145495308X |
The orphan of a Danish mother and a West Indian father, Helga Crane is a young woman caught between cultures and in search of a home. Though her beauty and education open many doors, as a biracial woman in 1920s America, Helga is accepted by neither the Black nor the white communities—instead remaining an object of curiosity and an outsider wherever she goes. Her furious quest for belonging will take her from Chicago to New York to Denmark: a journey rife with autobiographical parallels to Larsen’s own life. With its astonishingly contemporary take on identity and an angry, rebellious heroine, Quicksand is a classic novel ripe for rediscovery.
Harlem Renaissance Novels
Title | Harlem Renaissance Novels PDF eBook |
Author | Rafia Zafar |
Publisher | National Geographic Books |
Pages | 0 |
Release | 2011 |
Genre | Fiction |
ISBN | 1598531069 |
Presents classic novels from the 1920s and 1930s that offer insight into the cultural dynamics of the Harlem Renaissance era and celebrate the period's diverse literary styles.
Passing (African American Heritage Classics)
Title | Passing (African American Heritage Classics) PDF eBook |
Author | Nella Larsen |
Publisher | |
Pages | 228 |
Release | 2010-08 |
Genre | Fiction |
ISBN | 9781479445677 |
Nellallitea 'Nella' Larsen (first called Nellie Walker) (1891-1964) was an American novelist of the Harlem Renaissance who wrote two novels and a few short stories. Though her literary output was scant, what she wrote earned her recognition by her contemporaries and by present-day critics. In "Passing," Clare and Irene were two childhood friends. They lost touch when Clare's father died and she moved in with two white aunts. By hiding that Clare was part-black, they allowed her to 'pass' as a white woman and marry a white racist. Irene lives in Harlem, commits herself to racial uplift, and marries a black doctor. The novel centers on the meeting of the two childhood friends later in life, and the unfolding of events as each woman is fascinated and seduced by the other's daring lifestyle. The novel traces a tragic path as Irene becomes paranoid that her husband is having an affair with Clare.