Passing By Nella Larsen Full Text

Passing by Nella Larsen Full Text: A Deep Dive into a Harlem Renaissance Masterpiece

Are you captivated by the complexities of race, identity, and desire in the Harlem Renaissance? Do you yearn to experience Nella Larsen's Passing in its entirety, free from the constraints of abridged versions? This comprehensive guide provides you with a complete overview of Passing by Nella Larsen, including access to the full text, a detailed chapter-by-chapter analysis, and answers to frequently asked questions. We'll delve into the novel's intricate plot, exploring its themes and characters with an eye toward understanding its enduring legacy. Prepare to be immersed in a story that continues to resonate with readers today.

Accessing the Full Text of Passing by Nella Larsen

Unfortunately, providing the full text of Passing directly within this blog post is impossible due to copyright restrictions. However, numerous resources offer legal and accessible avenues to read the complete novel. These include:

Project Gutenberg: This invaluable online library often hosts public domain works. Check their catalog for Passing – it's a popular title and frequently available.
Internet Archive: Similar to Project Gutenberg, the Internet Archive provides access to digitized books. You can search for Passing here and potentially find a free version.
Your Local Library: Libraries are an excellent resource for accessing books, both physically and digitally. Check your local library's catalog or online portal.
Online Book Retailers: Retailers like Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and others offer both physical and ebook versions of Passing for purchase.

Remember to always obtain the novel through legitimate channels to support authors and publishers.

A Chapter-by-Chapter Exploration of Passing

While providing a full synopsis would infringe on copyright, we can offer a structured overview of the novel's key sections and thematic developments:

Part 1: The Chance Encounter

This section introduces Irene Redfield and Clare Kendry, two women who have more in common than meets the eye. Their unexpected reunion in Chicago sets the stage for a complex relationship fraught with tension, unspoken desires, and the ever-present shadow of racial identity. This part establishes the central conflict: Clare's decision to "pass" as white and the implications of this choice on both her life and Irene's.

Part 2: The Unveiling

As the novel progresses, the reader sees the strains and challenges of Clare’s double life. The increasingly fraught interactions between Irene and Clare expose the fragility of Clare's carefully constructed existence and the psychological toll of living a lie. This section delves deeper into the characters' motivations, exploring their internal conflicts and the societal pressures that shape their choices. The theme of self-discovery versus self-preservation is central here.

Part 3: The Confrontation and Resolution

The climax of the novel reveals the full extent of the consequences of Clare's choices. The final scenes are intensely dramatic, culminating in a tragic end that underscores the devastating impact of racial prejudice and the internalized racism that affects even those who actively try to escape it. This section forces readers to confront the harsh realities of a society deeply divided by race.

Detailed Outline of Passing

I. Introduction:

Setting the scene in 1920s Chicago, introducing Irene Redfield and her comfortable, yet subtly uneasy, life within the Black community.
The chance encounter between Irene and Clare Kendry, sparking a tension-filled reunion.
Establishing the central conflict: Clare's decision to "pass" as white and its ramifications.

II. Main Chapters:

Chapter 1-5: Development of Irene and Clare’s relationship; introduction of key secondary characters, highlighting their roles in shaping the central narrative. Exploration of themes of social class and racial identity within the Black community.
Chapter 6-10: Deepening of the relationship between Irene and Clare, revealing the complexities and contradictions in both women’s lives. Introduction of the theme of jealousy and competition. Exploration of the pressures faced by those “passing” and the resulting internal conflict.
Chapter 11-15 (and Epilogue): The climax of the novel, showcasing the devastating consequences of Clare’s actions and the unraveling of both women's carefully constructed lives. Examination of themes of betrayal, self-destruction, and the inescapable reality of racial prejudice. The concluding chapter offers a poignant reflection on the enduring impact of the events.

III. Conclusion:

Resolution of the central conflict, highlighting the ultimate tragedy.
The enduring impact of the novel's themes on the reader.
A reflection on the complexities of identity and the lasting power of societal prejudice.

Explanation of Outline Points

The introduction carefully sets the stage, establishing the time period and introducing the protagonists. The main chapters then systematically unfold the central conflict, exploring the nuances of Irene and Clare’s relationship. Each chapter contributes to a growing sense of tension and inevitable tragedy. The conclusion then provides a thoughtful reflection on the events, leaving the reader to contemplate the lasting implications of the story. The detailed breakdown allows for a nuanced understanding of the narrative arc and the evolving themes throughout the novel.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

1. Is Passing by Nella Larsen a difficult read? While the language is relatively straightforward, the novel's exploration of complex themes can be emotionally challenging.

2. What are the main themes of Passing? Race, identity, class, societal pressure, internalized racism, and the psychological impact of living a lie are central themes.

3. What is the significance of the title Passing? It refers to the act of passing as white, a crucial element of Clare’s life and the core conflict of the novel.

4. Is Passing a historically accurate portrayal of the Harlem Renaissance? It provides valuable insight into the realities of racial identity and social dynamics within that era, even if not completely exhaustive.

5. Who is the narrator of Passing? The narrative shifts between Irene’s and Clare’s perspectives, creating a multifaceted and complex portrayal of the events.

6. How does Passing end? The ending is tragic and emphasizes the devastating consequences of racial prejudice and self-deception.

7. Why is Passing still relevant today? Its exploration of identity, race, and societal pressures continues to resonate with readers facing similar challenges in contemporary society.

8. Where can I find critical analyses of Passing? Academic databases like JSTOR and Project MUSE, along with numerous literary journals and websites, offer critical essays and reviews of the novel.

9. Are there any adaptations of Passing? Yes, there have been several film and stage adaptations of Passing, each offering a unique interpretation of the novel.

Related Articles

1. The Harlem Renaissance: A Cultural Awakening: An overview of the artistic and intellectual flourishing of the Harlem Renaissance.

2. Nella Larsen: A Biography: A detailed examination of Nella Larsen’s life and career, placing her within the context of her time.

3. The Significance of Setting in Passing: A discussion of the role of Chicago and its social landscape in shaping the novel’s themes.

4. Character Analysis: Irene Redfield: A deep dive into the complexities of Irene’s personality and her role in the narrative.

5. Character Analysis: Clare Kendry: An examination of Clare's motivations and the psychological toll of her choice to “pass.”

6. Themes of Identity in Passing: An in-depth exploration of the novel's various themes, including identity, race, and class.

7. Comparing and Contrasting Irene and Clare: A comparative analysis highlighting the similarities and differences between the two main characters.

8. The Role of Internalized Racism in Passing: A focus on the impact of internalized racism on both Clare and Irene's experiences.

9. Passing and its Legacy in Contemporary Literature: An examination of the novel's lasting influence on contemporary works exploring race and identity.


  passing by nella larsen full text: Passing Nella Larsen, 2022 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 by nella larsen full text: Quicksand Nella Larsen, 2022 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 Quicksand first appeared in 1928.
  passing by nella larsen full text: Passing Nella Larsen, 2020-10-15 Nella Larsen's distinctive and revealing novel about racial identity set in New York in 1929. Soon to be a major motion picture starring Tessa Thompson, Ruth Negga and Alexander Skarsgård. Irene Redfield, married to a successful physician, enjoys a comfortable life in Harlem, New York. Reluctantly, she renews her friendship with old school friend, Clare Kendry. Clare, who like Irene is light skinned, 'passes' as white and is married to a racist white man who has no idea about Clare's racial heritage. Even though Irene knows that reigniting her friendship with Clare will lead to trouble, she can't resist allowing Irene into her world. Irene in turn wants to rekindle her bonds with the African American community of her youth. As tensions mount between friends and between couples, this taut and mesmerizing narrative spins towards an unexpected end. This edition of Passing features an introduction by writer and academic, Christa Holm Vogelius.
  passing by nella larsen full text: Passing and the Fictions of Identity Elaine K. Ginsberg, 1996-04-29 Passing refers to the process whereby a person of one race, gender, nationality, or sexual orientation adopts the guise of another. Historically, this has often involved black slaves passing as white in order to gain their freedom. More generally, it has served as a way for women and people of color to access male or white privilege. In their examination of this practice of crossing boundaries, the contributors to this volume offer a unique perspective for studying the construction and meaning of personal and cultural identities. These essays consider a wide range of texts and moments from colonial times to the present that raise significant questions about the political motivations inherent in the origins and maintenance of identity categories and boundaries. Through discussions of such literary works as Running a Thousand Miles for Freedom, The Autobiography of an Ex–Coloured Man, Uncle Tom’s Cabin, The Hidden Hand, Black Like Me, and Giovanni’s Room, the authors examine issues of power and privilege and ways in which passing might challenge the often rigid structures of identity politics. Their interrogation of the semiotics of behavior, dress, language, and the body itself contributes significantly to an understanding of national, racial, gender, and sexual identity in American literature and culture. Contextualizing and building on the theoretical work of such scholars as Judith Butler, Diana Fuss, Marjorie Garber, and Henry Louis Gates Jr., Passing and the Fictions of Identity will be of value to students and scholars working in the areas of race, gender, and identity theory, as well as U.S. history and literature. Contributors. Martha Cutter, Katharine Nicholson Ings, Samira Kawash, Adrian Piper, Valerie Rohy, Marion Rust, Julia Stern, Gayle Wald, Ellen M. Weinauer, Elizabeth Young
  passing by nella larsen full text: Approaches to Teaching the Novels of Nella Larsen Jacquelyn Y. McLendon, 2016-09-01 Nella Larsen's novels Quicksand and Passing, published at the height of the Harlem Renaissance, fell out of print and were thus little known for many years. Now widely available and taught, Quicksand and Passing challenge conventional tragic mulatta and passing narratives. In part 1, Materials, of Approaches to Teaching the Novels of Nella Larsen, the editor surveys the canon of Larsen's writing, evaluates editions of her works, recommends secondary readings, and compiles a list of useful multimedia resources for teaching. The essays in part 2, Approaches, aim to help students better understand attitudes toward women and race during the Harlem Renaissance, the novels' relations to other artistic movements, and legal debates over racial identities in the early twentieth century. In so doing, contributors demonstrate how new and seasoned instructors alike might use Larsen's novels to explore a wide range of topics--including Larsen's short stories and letters, the relation between her writings and her biography, and the novels' discussion of gender and sexuality.
  passing by nella larsen full text: Beyond Passing Nella Larsen, 2021-08-31 Nella Larsen's 1929 novel Passing is hailed today as a significant literary work of Harlem Renaissance, though for several decades it, like all of her works, was out of print. As history rights a wrong and recommits Larsen's name to memory, it is beneficial to look at the other writings she published over her short career, collected here in Beyond Passing: The Further Writings of Nella Larsen. Contained within are her autobiographical novel Quicksand, and three short stories Freedom, The Wrong Man, and Sanctuary. With a growing number of titles under its Magna Releases banner, CSRC Storytelling promotes and provides positivity, power and presence in print, restoring literary classics across genres and making them newly accessible to modern readers. This collection of Nella Larsen stories is a CSRC Storytelling Magna Release.
  passing by nella larsen full text: Female Subjects in Black and White Elizabeth Abel, Barbara Christian, Helene Moglen, 1997-05-28 On literature, feminism and race.
  passing by nella larsen full text: The Return of the Soldier Rebecca West, 2022-11-13 The Return of the Soldier recounts the return of the shell shocked Captain Chris Baldry from the trenches of the First World War from the perspective of his cousin Jenny. The novel grapples with the soldier's return from World War I with mental trauma and its effects on the family, and sheds light on their fraught relationships. The successful treatment of the traumatised returned soldier is a fundamental element of The Return of the Soldier. Unlike Virginia Woolf's Mrs Dalloway and Dorothy L. Sayers' The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club, this novel lends certain optimism that the soldier can be reintegrated into society. The novel was adapted into a film of the same name in 1982. Excerpt: That day its beauty was an affront to me, because, like most Englishwomen of my time, I was wishing for the return of a soldier. Disregarding the national interest and everything else except the keen prehensile gesture of our hearts toward him, I wanted to snatch my Cousin Christopher from the wars and seal him in this green pleasantness his wife and I now looked upon. Of late I had had bad dreams about him. By nights I saw Chris running across the brown rottenness of No-Man's-Land...
  passing by nella larsen full text: The Odd Women George Gissing, 2021-05-21 George Gissing’s The Odd Women dramatizes key issues relating to class and gender in late-Victorian culture: the changing relationship between the sexes, the social impact of ‘odd’ or ‘redundant’ women, the cultural impact of ‘the new woman,’ and the opportunities for and conditions of employment in the expanding service sector of the economy. At the heart of these issues as many late Victorians saw them was a problem of the imbalance in the ratio of men to women in the population. There were more females than males, which meant that more and more women would be left unmarried; they would be ‘odd’ or ‘redundant,’ and would be forced to be independent and to find work to support themselves. In the Broadview edition, Gissing’s text is carefully annotated and accompanied by a range of documents from the period that help to lay out the context in which the book was written. In Gissing’s story, Virginia Madden and her two sisters are confronted upon the death of their father with sudden impoverishment. Without training for employment, and desperate to maintain middle-class respectability, they face a daunting struggle. In Rhoda Nunn, a strong feminist, Gissing also presents a strong character who draws attention overtly to the issues behind the novel. The Odd Women is one of the most important social novels of the late nineteenth century.
  passing by nella larsen full text: The Short Fiction of Nella Larsen Nella Larsen, 2013-04-22 Nella Larsen was an important writer associated with the Harlem Renaissance. While she was not prolific her work was powerful and critically acclaimed. Collected here are all three of her published short stories; Freedom, The Wrong Man, and Sanctuary. These stories are about love, loss, mistaken identity, and death.
  passing by nella larsen full text: Passing Nella Larsen, 2021-11-18 Now a major Netflix film starring Tessa Thompson, Ruth Negga and Alexander SkarsgårdChildhood friends Clare and Irene are both light-skinned enough to pass as white, but only one of them has chosen to cross the colour line and live with the secret hanging over her. Clare believes she had successfully cut herself off from any connection to her past. Married to a racist white man who is oblivious to her African-American heritage, it is vital to her that the truth remains hidden. Irene is living as a middle-class Black woman with her husband and children in Harlem, taking on an important role in her community and embracing her origins.Both women are forced to re-examine their relationships with each other, with their husbands and with the truth, confronting their most closely guarded fears. Nella Larsen's powerful, tragic and acutely observant writing established her as a lodestar of America's Harlem Renaissance. Almost a century later, Passing and its nuanced exploration of the many fraught ways in which we seek to survive remains as timely as ever
  passing by nella larsen full text: The Wreck of the Corsaire William Clark Russell, 1897
  passing by nella larsen full text: Blood Moon Lucy Cuthew, 2020-10-06 This powerful, timely novel in verse exposes provocative truths about periods, sex, shame, and going viral for all the wrong reasons. After school one day, Frankie, a lover of physics and astronomy, has her first sexual experience with quiet and gorgeous Benjamin—and gets her period. It’s only blood, they agree. But soon a gruesome meme goes viral, turning an intimate, affectionate afternoon into something sordid, mortifying, and damaging. In the time it takes to swipe a screen, Frankie’s universe implodes. Who can she trust? Not Harriet, her suddenly cruel best friend, and certainly not Benjamin, the only one who knows about the incident. As the online shaming takes on a horrifying life of its own, Frankie begins to wonder: is her real life over? Author Lucy Cuthew vividly portrays what it is to be a teen today with this fearless and ultimately uplifting novel in verse. Brimming with emotion, the story captures the intensity of friendships, first love, and female desire, while unflinchingly exploring the culture of online and menstrual shaming. Sure to be a conversation starter, Blood Moon is the unforgettable portrait of one girl’s fight to reclaim her reputation and to stand up against a culture that says periods are dirty.
  passing by nella larsen full text: Imitation of Life Fannie Hurst, 2004-12-07 A reprint of the 1933 classic novel, the basis for two film versions, with a new introduciton.
  passing by nella larsen full text: Too Brief a Treat Truman Capote, 2012-05-15 The private letters of Truman Capote, lovingly assembled here for the first time by acclaimed Capote biographer Gerald Clarke, provide an intimate, unvarnished portrait of one of the twentieth century’s most colorful and fascinating literary figures. Capote was an inveterate letter writer. He wrote letters as he spoke: emphatically, spontaneously, and passionately. Spanning more than four decades, his letters are the closest thing we have to a Capote autobiography, showing us the uncannily self-possessed naïf who jumped headlong into the post–World War II New York literary scene; the more mature Capote of the 1950s; the Capote of the early 1960s, immersed in the research and writing of In Cold Blood; and Capote later in life, as things seem to be unraveling. With cameos by a veritable who’s who of twentieth-century glitterati, Too Brief a Treat shines a spotlight on the life and times of an incomparable American writer.
  passing by nella larsen full text: We Love You, Charlie Freeman Kaitlyn Greenidge, 2016-03-08 This shattering novel is filled with storytelling sleight of hand. What appears to be a story of mothers and daughters, of sisterhood put to the test, of adolescent love and grown-up misconduct, and of history’s long reach, becomes a provocative and compelling exploration of America’s failure to find a language to talk about race.
  passing by nella larsen full text: Black Deutschland Darryl Pinckney, 2016-02-02 An intoxicating, provocative novel of appetite, identity, and self-construction, Darryl Pinckney's Black Deutschland tells the story of an outsider, trapped between a painful past and a tenebrous future, in Europe's brightest and darkest city. Jed--young, gay, black, out of rehab and out of prospects in his hometown of Chicago--flees to the city of his fantasies, a museum of modernism and decadence: Berlin. The paradise that tyranny created, the subsidized city isolated behind the Berlin Wall, is where he's chosen to become the figure that he so admires, the black American expatriate. Newly sober and nostalgic for the Weimar days of Isherwood and Auden, Jed arrives to chase boys and to escape from what it means to be a black male in America. But history, both personal and political, can't be avoided with time or distance. Whether it's the judgment of the cousin he grew up with and her husband's bourgeois German family, the lure of white wine in a down-and-out bar, a gang of racists looking for a brawl, or the ravaged visage of Rock Hudson flashing behind the face of every white boy he desperately longs for, the past never stays past even in faraway Berlin. In the age of Reagan and AIDS in a city on the verge of tearing down its walls, he clambers toward some semblance of adulthood amid the outcasts and expats, intellectuals and artists, queers and misfits. And, on occasion, the city keeps its Isherwood promises and the boy he kisses, incredibly, kisses him back.
  passing by nella larsen full text: Queen Sugar Natalie Baszile, 2014-02-06 The inspiration for the acclaimed OWN TV series produced by Oprah Winfrey and Ava DuVernay Queen Sugar is a page-turning, heart-breaking novel of the new south, where the past is never truly past, but the future is a hot, bright promise. This is a story of family and the healing power of our connections—to each other, and to the rich land beneath our feet. —Tayari Jones, author of An American Marriage Readers, booksellers, and critics alike are embracing Queen Sugar and cheering for its heroine, Charley Bordelon, an African American woman and single mother struggling to build a new life amid the complexities of the contemporary South. When Charley unexpectedly inherits eight hundred acres of sugarcane land, she and her eleven-year-old daughter say goodbye to smoggy Los Angeles and head to Louisiana. She soon learns, however, that cane farming is always going to be a white man’s business. As the sweltering summer unfolds, Charley struggles to balance the overwhelming challenges of a farm in decline with the demands of family and the startling desires of her own heart.
  passing by nella larsen full text: The Complete Fiction of Nella Larsen Nella Larsen, 2010-09-01 A remarkable volume that brings together the complete fiction of the author of Passing and Quicksand, one of the most gifted writers of the Harlem Renaissance. • An original and hugely insightful writer. —The New York Times Throughout her short but brilliant literary career, Nella Larsen wrote piercing dramas about the black middle class that featured sensitive, spirited heroines struggling to find a place where they belonged. Passing, Larsen’s best-known work, is a disturbing story about the unraveling lives of two childhood friends, one of whom turns her back on her past and marries a white bigot. Just as disquieting is the portrait in Quicksand of Helga Crane, half black and half white, who is unable to escape her loneliness no matter where and with whom she lives. Race and marriage offer few securities here or in the other stories in this compulsively readable collection, rich in psychological complexity and imbued with a sense of place that brings Harlem vibrantly to life.
  passing by nella larsen full text: In Search of Nella Larsen George Hutchinson, 2009-07-01 Born to a Danish seamstress and a black West Indian cook in one of the Western Hemisphere's most infamous vice districts, Nella Larsen (1891-1964) lived her life in the shadows of America's racial divide. She wrote about that life, was briefly celebrated in her time, then was lost to later generations--only to be rediscovered and hailed by many as the best black novelist of her generation. In his search for Nella Larsen, the mystery woman of the Harlem Renaissance, George Hutchinson exposes the truths and half-truths surrounding this central figure of modern literary studies, as well as the complex reality they mask and mirror. His book is a cultural biography of the color line as it was lived by one person who truly embodied all of its ambiguities and complexities. Author of a landmark study of the Harlem Renaissance, Hutchinson here produces the definitive account of a life long obscured by misinterpretations, fabrications, and omissions. He brings Larsen to life as an often tormented modernist, from the trauma of her childhood to her emergence as a star of the Harlem Renaissance. Showing the links between her experiences and her writings, Hutchinson illuminates the singularity of her achievement and shatters previous notions of her position in the modernist landscape. Revealing the suppressions and misunderstandings that accompany the effort to separate black from white, his book addresses the vast consequences for all Americans of color-line culture's fundamental rule: race trumps family.
  passing by nella larsen full text: High Cotton Darryl Pinckney, 1992-02-01 An elegant, insightful novel that evokes the world of upper-middle-class blacks, following an unnamed narrator from a safe childhood in conservative Indianapolis, to a brief tenure as minister of information for a local radical organization, to the life of an expatriate in Paris. Through it all, his imagination is increasingly dominated by his elderly relations and the lessons of their experiences in the Old Country of the South.
  passing by nella larsen full text: Caucasia Danzy Senna, 1999-02-01 From the author of New People and Colored Television, the extraordinary national bestseller that launched Danzy Senna’s literary career “Superbly illustrates the emotional toll that politics and race take … Haunting.” —The New York Times Book Review Birdie and Cole are the daughters of a black father and a white mother, intellectuals and activists in the Civil Rights Movement in 1970s Boston. The sisters are so close that they speak their own language, yet Birdie, with her light skin and straight hair, is often mistaken for white, while Cole is dark enough to fit in with the other kids at school. Despite their differences, Cole is Birdie’s confidant, her protector, the mirror by which she understands herself. Then their parents’ marriage collapses. One night Birdie watches her father and his new girlfriend drive away with Cole. Soon Birdie and her mother are on the road as well, drifting across the country in search of a new home. But for Birdie, home will always be Cole. Haunted by the loss of her sister, she sets out a desperate search for the family that left her behind. A modern classic, Caucasia is at once a powerful coming of age story and a groundbreaking work on identity and race in America.
  passing by nella larsen full text: Brown Girls Daphne Palasi Andreades, 2022-01-04 NEW YORK TIMES EDITORS’ CHOICE • A “boisterous and infectious debut novel” (The Guardian) about a group of friends and their immigrant families from Queens, New York—a tenderly observed, fiercely poetic love letter to a modern generation of brown girls. “An acute study of those tender moments of becoming, this is an ode to girlhood, inheritance, and the good trouble the body yields.”—Raven Leilani, author of Luster FINALIST: The New American Voices Award, The Carol Shields Prize for Fiction, The VCU Cabell First Novelist Award, The New American Voices Award, The Center for Fiction First Novel Prize ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: PopSugar, Kirkus Reviews If you really want to know, we are the color of 7-Eleven root beer. The color of sand at Rockaway Beach when it blisters the bottoms of our feet. Color of soil . . . Welcome to Queens, New York, where streets echo with languages from all over the globe, subways rumble above dollar stores, trees bloom and topple over sidewalks, and the funky scent of the Atlantic Ocean wafts in from Rockaway Beach. Within one of New York City’s most vibrant and eclectic boroughs, young women of color like Nadira, Gabby, Naz, Trish, Angelique, and countless others, attempt to reconcile their immigrant backgrounds with the American culture in which they come of age. Here, they become friends for life—or so they vow. Exuberant and wild, together they roam The City That Never Sleeps, sing Mariah Carey at the tops of their lungs, yearn for crushes who pay them no mind—and break the hearts of those who do—all while trying to heed their mothers’ commands to be obedient daughters. But as they age, their paths diverge and rifts form between them, as some choose to remain on familiar streets, while others find themselves ascending in the world, beckoned by existences foreign and seemingly at odds with their humble roots. A blazingly original debut novel told by a chorus of unforgettable voices, Brown Girls illustrates a collective portrait of childhood, adulthood, and beyond, and is a striking exploration of female friendship, a powerful depiction of women of color attempting to forge their place in the world today. For even as the conflicting desires of ambition and loyalty, freedom and commitment, adventure and stability risk dividing them, it is to one another—and to Queens—that the girls ultimately return.
  passing by nella larsen full text: A Separate Peace John Knowles, 2022-05-24 PBS's The Great American Read named it one of America's best-loved novels. A Separate Peace has been a bestseller in the United States for nearly thirty years, and it is ageless in its depiction of youth during a time when the entire country was losing its innocence to World War II. A Separate Peace is a horrific and brilliant fable about the dark side of adolescence set at a boys' boarding school in New England during the early years of World War II. Gene is an introverted, lonely intellectual. Phineas is a reckless athlete who is attractive and taunts others. Like the war itself, what happens between the two friends one summer robs these guys and their world of their innocence.
  passing by nella larsen full text: They Aren't, Until I Call Them Enikő Bollobás, 2010 The Deutsche Nationalbibliothek lists this publication in the Deutsche Nationalbibliografie; detailed bibliographic data is available in the internet at http://dnb.d-nb.de.
  passing by nella larsen full text: The Heads of Cerberus Francis Stevens, 2014-12-17 A trio of time-travelers land in Philadelphia's brutal totalitarian state of 2118. This 1919 classic was the first alternate-world fantasy, and H. P. Lovecraft hailed its author as among the top grade of writers. Loaded with action and humor, the novel anticipates the work of Philip K. Dick. A much-sought rarity. -- Analog--
  passing by nella larsen full text: Quicksand Nella Larsen, 2020 Noted Harlem Renaissance scholar Carla Kaplan here offers a new edition of Nella Larsen's Quicksand with an acute introduction comprising both biography and critical survey. With its careful scholarly scaffolding, this superbly useful edition will benefit teacher and student alike. --RAFIA ZAFAR, Washington University in Saint Louis
  passing by nella larsen full text: Modern American Literature Catherine Morley, 2012-05-11 An incisive study of modern American literature, casting new light on its origins and themes.
  passing by nella larsen full text: Mislaid Nell Zink, 2015-05-19 LONGLISTED FOR THE 2015 NATIONAL BOOK AWARD A sharply observed, mordantly funny, and startlingly original novel from an exciting, unconventional new voice—the author of the acclaimed The Wallcreeper—about the making and unmaking of the American family that lays bare all of our assumptions about race and racism, sexuality and desire. Stillwater College in Virginia, 1966. Freshman Peggy, an ingénue with literary pretensions, falls under the spell of Lee, a blue-blooded poet and professor, and they begin an ill-advised affair that results in an unplanned pregnancy and marriage. The two are mismatched from the start—she’s a lesbian, he’s gay—but it takes a decade of emotional erosion before Peggy runs off with their three-year-old daughter, leaving their nine-year-old son behind. Worried that Lee will have her committed for her erratic behavior, Peggy goes underground, adopting an African American persona for her and her daughter. They squat in a house in an African-American settlement, eventually moving to a housing project where no one questions their true racial identities. As Peggy and Lee’s children grow up, they must contend with diverse emotional issues: Byrdie deals with his father’s compulsive honesty; while Karen struggles with her mother’s lies—she knows neither her real age, nor that she is “white,” nor that she has any other family. Years later, a minority scholarship lands Karen at the University of Virginia, where Byrdie is in his senior year. Eventually the long lost siblings will meet, setting off a series of misunderstandings and culminating in a comedic finale worthy of Shakespeare.
  passing by nella larsen full text: Neither Black Nor White Yet Both Werner Sollors, 1999 Why can a white woman give birth to a black baby, while a black woman can never give birth to a white baby in the United States? What makes racial passing so different from social mobility? Why are interracial and incestuous relations often confused or conflated in literature, making miscegenation appear as if it were incest? Werner Sollors examines these questions and others in Neither Black nor White yet Both, a fully researched investigation of literary works that, in the past, have been read more for a black-white contrast of either-or than for an interracial realm of neither, nor, both, and in-between. From the origins of the term race to the cultural sources of the Tragic Mulatto, and from the calculus of color to the retellings of various plots, Sollors examines what we know about race, analyzing recurrent motifs in scientific and legal works as well as in fiction, drama, and poetry. Copyright © Libri GmbH. All rights reserved.
  passing by nella larsen full text: Slash Jeannette C. Armstrong, 1988 Grade level: 9, 10, 11, 12, i, s.
  passing by nella larsen full text: Passing Nella Larsen, 2021-01-01 Nella Larsen’s 1929 novella follows friends Irene Redfield and Clare Kendry, two black women who pass as white. Their anxieties about passing culminate in tragedy, revealing the powerful repercussions of hiding one’s identity. Nearly a century later, Larsen’s exploration of race remains urgent and relevant as ever.
  passing by nella larsen full text: Nella Larsen, Novelist of the Harlem Renaissance Thadious M. Davis, 1996-05-01 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.
  passing by nella larsen full text: The Country of Ice Cream Star Sandra Newman, 2014-07-08 A post-apocalyptic literary epic in the tradition of The Handmaid's Tale, Divergent and Cloud Atlas, and a breakout book in North America for a writer of rare and unconventional talent. From Guardian First Book Award finalist Sandra Newman comes an ambitious and extraordinary novel of a future in which bands of children and teens survive on the detritus--physical and cultural--of a collapsed America. When her brother is struck down by Posies--a contagion that has killed everyone by their late teens for generations--fifteen-year-old Ice Cream Star pursues the rumour of a cure and sets out on a quest to save him, her tribe and what's left of their future. Along the way she faces broken hearts and family tragedy, mortal danger and all-out war--and much growing up for the girl who may have led herself and everyone she loves to their doom.
  passing by nella larsen full text: The Garies and Their Friends Frank J. Webb, 1857 Originally published in London in 1857 and never before available in paperback, The Garies and Their Friends is the second novel published by an African American and the first to chronicle the experience of free blacks in the pre-Civil War northeast. The novel anticipates themes that were to become important in later African American fiction, including miscegenation and 'passing, ' and tells the story of the Garies and their friends, the Ellises, a 'highly respectable and industrious coloured family.'
  passing by nella larsen full text: Women of the Harlem Renaissance Cheryl A. Wall, 1995-09-22 Wall's writing is lively and exuberant. She passes her enthusiasm for these writers' works on to the reader. She captures the mood of the times and follows through with the writers' evolution -- sometimes to success, other times to isolation.... Women of the Harlem Renaissance is a rare blend of thorough academic research with writing that anyone can appreciate. -- Jason Zappe, Copley News Service By connecting the women to one another, to the cultural movement in which they worked, and to other early 20th-century women writers, Wall deftly defines their place in American literature. Her biographical and literary analysis surpasses others by following up on diverse careers that often ended far past the end of the movement. Highly recommended... Â -- Library Journal Wall offers a wealth of information and insight on their work, lives and interaction with other writers... strong critiques... -- Publishers Weekly The lives and works of women artists in the Harlem Renaissance -- Jessie Redmon Fauset, Nella Larsen, Zora Neale Hurston, Bessie Smith, and others. Their achievements reflect the struggle of a generation of literary women to depict the lives of Black people, especially Black women, honestly and artfully.
  passing by nella larsen full text: We the Animals Justin Torres, 2011-08-30 The critically acclaimed debut from the National Book Award–winning author of Blackouts. In this award-winning, groundbreaking novel, Justin Torres plunges us into the chaotic heart of one family, the intense bonds of three brothers, and the mythic effects of this fierce love on the people we must become. “A tremendously gifted writer whose highly personal voice should excite us in much the same way that Raymond Carver’s or Jeffrey Eugenides’s voice did when we first heard it.” —The Washington Post Three brothers tear their way through childhood—smashing tomatoes all over each other, building kites from trash, hiding out when their parents do battle, tiptoeing around the house as their mother sleeps off her graveyard shift. Paps and Ma are from Brooklyn—he’s Puerto Rican, she’s white—and their love is a serious, dangerous thing that makes and unmakes a family many times. Life in this family is fierce and absorbing, full of chaos and heartbreak and the euphoria of belonging completely to one another. From the intense familial unity felt by a child to the profound alienation he endures as he begins to see the world, this beautiful novel reinvents the coming-of-age story in a way that is sly and punch-in-the-stomach powerful. “We the Animals is a dark jewel of a book. It’s heartbreaking. It’s beautiful. It resembles no other book I’ve read.” —Michael Cunningham “A fiery ode to boyhood. . . A welterweight champ of a book.” —NPR, Weekend Edition NOW A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE
  passing by nella larsen full text: Leaf Storm Gabriel Garcia Marquez, 2005-02-01 Contains Leaf Storm, The Handsomest Drowned Man in the World, A Very Old Man With Enormous Wings, Blacaman the Good, Vendor of Miracles, The Last Voyage of the Ghost Ship, Monologue of Isabel Watching It Rain in Macondo, Nabo
  passing by nella larsen full text: The Historian's Passing Lynn Domina, 2018-10-01 This meticulously annotated edition of Nella Larsen's novel Passing contextualizes the novel's many historical and cultural references and introduces readers to a central theme: crossing the color line in the hopes of living a more privileged life. Nella Larsen's Passing is widely regarded as a classic novel of African American literature—a groundbreaking work in which the author keenly depicted an under-acknowledged element of early 20th-century American life: crossing the color line in the hopes of living a more privileged life. Now, readers can appreciate the full text of Larsen's masterpiece, accompanied throughout by invaluable annotations that transform this classic into a fascinating historical documentation of American life and society during the Harlem Renaissance. This meticulously annotated edition draws on the wealth of race scholarship that has been produced during the last generation to contextualize the novel's many historical and cultural references. It includes introductory essays focusing on Nella Larsen's life and its influence on her novel, and on events in American history and culture that appear in the novel. The book concludes with a comprehensive list of resources for further research.
  passing by nella larsen full text: Harlem Renaissance Novels Rafia Zafar, 2011 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.