TY - JOUR
T1 - The penumbral spaces of Nella Larsen's Passing
T2 - Undecidable bodies, mobile identities, and the deconstruction of racial boundaries
AU - Carter, Perry L.
PY - 2006/6
Y1 - 2006/6
N2 - Nella Larsen's 1929 novel, Passing, is a psychological drama centering around two fair-skinned women. One, Clare Kendry, passes as the White wife of a financially successful racist; the other, Irene Redfield, is a 'race woman' living in upper Manhattan during the era of the Renaissance Harlem. Clare and Irene are undecidables, neither White nor Black, fluid subjects traversing the boundaries of race - passing. Passing is an act of insinuating oneself into forbidden spaces by jettisoning former identities. It is as much a transgression of spatial boundaries as it is of racial boundaries. In the novel Clare passes by merely crossing from Black space into White space, and along the way shedding a Black identity for a White one. This paper examines the mobility of identities across racial geographies and how this movement destabilizes notions of race and of raced spaces.
AB - Nella Larsen's 1929 novel, Passing, is a psychological drama centering around two fair-skinned women. One, Clare Kendry, passes as the White wife of a financially successful racist; the other, Irene Redfield, is a 'race woman' living in upper Manhattan during the era of the Renaissance Harlem. Clare and Irene are undecidables, neither White nor Black, fluid subjects traversing the boundaries of race - passing. Passing is an act of insinuating oneself into forbidden spaces by jettisoning former identities. It is as much a transgression of spatial boundaries as it is of racial boundaries. In the novel Clare passes by merely crossing from Black space into White space, and along the way shedding a Black identity for a White one. This paper examines the mobility of identities across racial geographies and how this movement destabilizes notions of race and of raced spaces.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=33748310566&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1080/09663690600700972
DO - 10.1080/09663690600700972
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:33748310566
VL - 13
SP - 227
EP - 246
JO - Gender, Place and Culture
JF - Gender, Place and Culture
SN - 0966-369X
IS - 3
ER -