“Beyond the Color Line.” The New York Times Book Review. (Apr. 28, 1929): p14. Contemporary Literary Criticism. Ed. Daniel G. Marowski and Roger Matuz. Vol. 37. Detroit: Gale Research, 1986. From Literature Resource Center.Web. 1 Mar.2012
The article begins with the article praising Nella Larsen as a great author. As it continues, it starts to criticize Nella Larsen. The review compares her to another author, Claude McKay, at that time.it appears Larsen left too much for the readers to assume because in the first section it states we, the readers are supposed to know where the negroes lived, which was in Harlem and Chicago. Without reading the novel, with the article you learn it deals with psychological conflicts. The two major conflicts in the novel deal with wanting to acknowledge ones true identity, but cannot because it would danger ones’ life, and prejudice of friends, wanting to have the life of another. The author says there are two major faults with the novel, reading this it makes me wonder if I will agree or not. The review makes it seem like one of the major characters; Clare Kendry is too good to be true. Something I don’t like about the article is the ending is given away. There is a lot to speculate from that because now that we know she dies we wonder how. At the end it also says how the ending is “made”, and it intrigued me. The author thinks it’s curious of how all the problems the novel contains are wiped away with Clare’s death. In other words, it seems too good to be true. It is also curious of how Nella Larsen herself is part white and part black. Maybe she is trying to portray herself or lets her feelings and experiences show in her characters.
Davis, Thadious M.“Nella Larsen.” Afro-American Writers From the Harlem Renaissance to 1940. Ed. Trudier Harris-Lopez and Thadious M. Davis. Detroit: Gale Research, 1987. Dictionary of Literary Biography Vol. 51. From Literature Resource Center. 29 Feb. 2012
The second bibliography I did was a biography about Nella Larsen. She was born in Chicago on April 13, 1989. Her mother was Danish and her father was West Indian. For that reason, many people believe it adds to the effectiveness of the internal conflicts of Passing as I have read in other reviews. At the age of 2, she lost her father, and her mother married a man of her own race. She was an outcast one could say, in her family. Even though she was a great novelist, her family alienated her. Nella Larsen did not start out as a writer right away, instead she went to the University of Copenhagen to become a nurse. She married in 1919 to physicist. She was both a librarian and a nurse, but gave up nursing, published her first short story in January 1926, when she quit being a librarian. Her two major known short stories are Quicksand and Passing. In both it reveals parts of her life. In Quicksand, Helga, the main character goes to Copenhagen and is a foreigner, similar to how Nella Larsen was. In Passing, the characters either decide to embrace their true identity or hide it; again, Nella Larsen went through something similar.
Du Bois, W.E.B. “Review of Passing.” Crisis 36.7 (July 1929): p234.From Literature Resource Center.Web. 1 Mar. 2012
The first sentence was very positive and uplifting. To understand some of the article you have to remember history. The article was written in 1929. During that time, there was segregation and racism. Knowing that, the first section is clear because Du Bois recommends this novel, but states it is a forbidden subject. In those times, intermarriage was forbidden, and it surprising, but also touching that Nella Larsen was bold enough to write about a subject forbidden for the society to comprehend and accept in those times. The second section gets away from the topic a little. He goes on saying at the time, it was important to state whether you were partly colored. As history shows, and also in this section, many people knew they were part negro and tried to hide it. Keeping ones identity was crucial and could be fatal, but I disagree with the people who did this. Towards the end, it comes back to the focus point, which is on the novel. Du Bois praises Nella Larsen for showing the psychological meaning of the book, meaning the internal conflicts about ones’ identity and choosing to deny or embrace it; not only that but also the jealousy and test of friendship, the ability to go from friends to enemies and vice versa. He describes the two major characters, Irene and Clare. Irene embraces her race, has a dark husband, and loves her boys. Clare is described as almost perfect. She is beautiful and lives in the white world, even though she’s part negro. Both these women envy each other in different aspects. Du Bois uses the words “race-conscious Puritan” for Irene and “lonesome hedonist” for Clare. There is a twist though, maybe it was no surprise for some…the triangle that is formed with Irene’s husband, who is described as a cynical keen rebel. This article was very helpful and insightful. I love the last sentence. It is simple and clear, just like how Du Bois intended it to be. “Buy the book.”
Early, Gerald. “Three Notes toward a Cultural Definition of the Harlem Renaissance.” Callaloo 14.1 (Winter 1991): 136-149. Rpt. in Twentieth-Century Literary Criticism. Ed. Thomas J. Schoenberg and Lawrence J. Trudeau. Vol. 218. Detroit: Gale, 2009. Literature Resource Center. Web. 2 Mar. 2012
Throughout school we have been taught about the Harlem Renaissance. The time when African Americans exceled in music and literature; they all came as one for the same cause. We have been taught the upsides, but not as much of the downside. The author, Gerald Early, starts saying scholars speak of the disillusionment, discontent, and despair caused by the disappointment after WWII started the events in the twenties. He reminds us not to forget the time period between 1913 and 1920. He brings up four amendments that were passed during this time. In 1913, the federal income tax and the direct election of senators, prohibition in 1919, and women’s right to vote in 1919. His intention in pointing the previous amendments is because he believes even without the tragedy of all Europe being at war, the twenties would still have happened as we know now. He gives more insight on the renaissance continuing this section. He talks about the development of jazz with Duke Ellington and Langston Hughes. Also, I learned Battling Siki and Tiger Flowers were champions in boxing, helping the renaissance. It continues on by giving examples of poets and how they impacted the renaissance. The article infers the renaissance was more than making a difference, but instead it was possibly about achieving honor by the oppressed.
McMillan, T.S.. “Passing Beyond: The Novels of Nella Larsen.” Philological Papers 38 (1992): p134-146.Twentieth-Century Literary Criticism. Vol. 200. Detroit: Gale. From Literature Resource Center. 2 Mar. 2012
It starts off with criticizing her two short stories at the beginning. The author definitely does not particularly like Nella Larsen’s work. He starts off stating there are three narrow paths Passing has taken. The three are finding faults in the “stylistic” difficulties, labeling the work as a “Black novel”, and finally confining it in the section of women books. The author believes Passing has a bad development and because of its fault, cannot pass mediocrity. It does not go into a lot of detail, but we can assume the ending will be too hard to believe. The reason is because the author explains the ending to be made up. of course it is made up, but what it means is the ending will wipe away all the problems for it to be like nothing happened. He also mentions how this book instead of dealing with the renaissance and the conflicts of black women, deals with politics and the status quo. Also, the author includes other authors which make the inference that instead of race a conflict, which is what the book is meant to be about, it is about gender. It might be understandable to believe this opinion because it is left for the reader to infer whether or not Irene killed Clare because Clare wanted her husband.
“Nella Larsen.” Feminist Writers.Ed. Pamela Kester-Shelton. Detroit: St. James Press, 1996. From Literature Resource Center.Web. 29 Feb. 2012
The article was a biography of Nella Larsen. It gives evidence of how Nella Larsen puts herself into her stories. In Quicksand, the character, Helga, is of mixed race, same as Nella Larsen. With that being said, it makes sense and is logical to believe that is true. Nella Larsen was alienated from her family, which she portrays in Helga, as the article states. Larsen felt she was best suited for writing about mulattoes was because of her experiences and background. The article is not a normal biography as others. It relates the stories with her life. The women desire and how to behave lady like was a troublesome subject in Larsen’s time and for her characters as well. I think Larsen tried to empty out her feelings with her stories. For her to try and tell people of her inside thoughts, questions, and doubts, but trying not to let the reader know it was her. one can only infer, which is what I believe is what she tried to do and what the author of this article tried to do as well. I liked this article because it makes one think deeply in a psychological way about her life and if her stories were related to her life accidentally or if they had a purpose.
“PASSING.” Publishers Weekly.246.29 (July 19, 1999): p186. From Literature Resource Center.Web. 28 Feb. 2012
This article starts off by saying the title of the book describes the book well. It explains the term “passing” normally means hiding the truth dealing with race and sexuality. The author of the article explains how the title clearly applies to the conflicts using evidence from the short novel. The title of the article first intrigued me because the title was the same as of the book. I was not very sure of what it meant. Honestly, I thought it would give a better description of what the author of the article thought and of their criticism. The paragraph clearly states one simple definition of passing and how it applies to the book. It did give insight of what to expect however. The article makes one think what will have to happen so the truth comes out; whenever something is dealing with lies, it intrigues us more, which is what the article did, even if it was very simple and self-explanatory. The last sentence in the paragraph is a bit bewildering because at the beginning, the author is telling you what to expect, but at the end it leaves you to wonder how many twists and turns the story will take. It comments also there will be many narrators, which can confuse the readers. Overall, this article was helpful in certain ways, for example how it agrees with the title, and others it wasn’t, as in it didn’t criticize the book, just gave a very diminutive summary.
This article is actually an audio file of an interview with Ms. Heidi Durrow. The host starts out by introducing her and turns out that her mother is Danish and her father is African American. She discusses one of her favorite books, Passing. She explains it deals with having to live up to a reputation and getting rid of the labels society has upon us. She must have dealt with that also possibly, even though she was born later. The mix of cultures and labels is something anyone can relate to. It was also stated that Nella Larsen was the first African American descent to win the Guggenheim fellowship. Throughout the article Ms. Durrow mentions repetively that the book deals with accepting whom one is. I did not like that it was so repetitive. Although, I did find it interesting how one author relates to another. Reading this article not only made me think about how the characters within it felt, but also I reflected upon myself. Passing…I now believe everyone goes through. I like the line “You may not identify with being a light-skinned African-American, but you have probably felt at some point that what was most important about you wasn't visible.” I like it because it can make readers relate this article and the book. Reading/hearing this article made me really intrigued to read the novel and to think about how it relates to all of us even when we don’t realize it. That’s what makes a great review and book.
Rottenburg, Catherine. “Passing: Race, Identification and Desire.” Criticism 45.4 (Fall 2003): p435-452.Twentieth-Century Literary Criticism. Vol. 200. Detroit: Gale. From Literature Resource Center. Web. 2 Mar. 2012
About in the second half of the nineteenth century, African American writers began to experiment writing about the complex lives and contradictions of American society dealing with race. The author emphasizes the “white blacks” played an important role in the imagination of such writers. Throughout the years, analysts of have tried to determine the strategy Larsen used for Passing. The two possible strategies they have are whether the narrations serve a purpose in reinforcing hegemonic norms dealing with race or if it suggests passing is an inevitable survival strategy. The author continues on to say, Passing helps critics understand that passing for something leads to questions of specific identities ranging from oneself to an identity in general. As the article continues, it talks about the hegemony will always exist in any given society. It states examples, which are race is a performative repetition meaning it works perfomatively giving a name to a reference rather than a single subject, assumption of whiteness and contradictions of race, which means the mixed people who could pass for white were assumed to be white until evidence was found, the specific operations of race performativity, and identification trouble which means, as before stated, the inner conflicts of accepting who one is and embrace and show that part of oneself or hide who you truly are and your past.
Wall, Cheryl. “Passing for What? Aspects of Identity in Nella Larsen's Novels.” Black American Literature Forum 20.1-2 (Spring-Summer 1986): p97-111.Twentieth-Century Literary Criticism. Vol. 200. Detroit: Gale. From Literature Resource Center.Web. 27 Feb. 2012
Nella Larsen published two novels at the peak of the renaissance. As quickly as she wrote them and how her fame rose, it all went away and she was left to obscurity. After writing Passing, Nella Larsen disappeared from the renaissance and from literature; even though, her works were praised and favored even at times of racism and prejudice. The author describes of how Larsen invites the reader in and how she emphasizes the characters by appearances, education, and their social class. Larsen does a well job of describing the struggles within concerning identity. Both her novels discuss the hardships of being a black woman. Not only in equality, but also the prejudice and sexual complications that occur in while they are on their journey trying to reach peace with one self and finding their wholesome identity. The author then evaluates Quicksand and Passing. Quicksand deals with being isolated from your family and your community. The setting in the story is similar to Nella Larsen’s life because she lived at the same places and also attended the same college. In Passing, the author reveals to us how Irene and Clare feel about each other. One can learn that insecurity, jealousy, and weak-minded can destroy a friendship. The more and more I read this article the more I am interested in reading the novel.
- “Beyond the Color Line.” The New York Times Book Review. (Apr. 28, 1929): p14. Contemporary Literary Criticism. Ed. Daniel G. Marowski and Roger Matuz. Vol. 37. Detroit: Gale Research, 1986. From Literature Resource Center.Web. 1 Mar.2012
The article begins with the article praising Nella Larsen as a great author. As it continues, it starts to criticize Nella Larsen. The review compares her to another author, Claude McKay, at that time.it appears Larsen left too much for the readers to assume because in the first section it states we, the readers are supposed to know where the negroes lived, which was in Harlem and Chicago. Without reading the novel, with the article you learn it deals with psychological conflicts. The two major conflicts in the novel deal with wanting to acknowledge ones true identity, but cannot because it would danger ones’ life, and prejudice of friends, wanting to have the life of another. The author says there are two major faults with the novel, reading this it makes me wonder if I will agree or not. The review makes it seem like one of the major characters; Clare Kendry is too good to be true. Something I don’t like about the article is the ending is given away. There is a lot to speculate from that because now that we know she dies we wonder how. At the end it also says how the ending is “made”, and it intrigued me. The author thinks it’s curious of how all the problems the novel contains are wiped away with Clare’s death. In other words, it seems too good to be true. It is also curious of how Nella Larsen herself is part white and part black. Maybe she is trying to portray herself or lets her feelings and experiences show in her characters.- Davis, Thadious M.“Nella Larsen.” Afro-American Writers From the Harlem Renaissance to 1940. Ed. Trudier Harris-Lopez and Thadious M. Davis. Detroit: Gale Research, 1987. Dictionary of Literary Biography Vol. 51. From Literature Resource Center. 29 Feb. 2012
The second bibliography I did was a biography about Nella Larsen. She was born in Chicago on April 13, 1989. Her mother was Danish and her father was West Indian. For that reason, many people believe it adds to the effectiveness of the internal conflicts of Passing as I have read in other reviews. At the age of 2, she lost her father, and her mother married a man of her own race. She was an outcast one could say, in her family. Even though she was a great novelist, her family alienated her. Nella Larsen did not start out as a writer right away, instead she went to the University of Copenhagen to become a nurse. She married in 1919 to physicist. She was both a librarian and a nurse, but gave up nursing, published her first short story in January 1926, when she quit being a librarian. Her two major known short stories are Quicksand and Passing. In both it reveals parts of her life. In Quicksand, Helga, the main character goes to Copenhagen and is a foreigner, similar to how Nella Larsen was. In Passing, the characters either decide to embrace their true identity or hide it; again, Nella Larsen went through something similar.- Du Bois, W.E.B. “Review of Passing.” Crisis 36.7 (July 1929): p234. From Literature Resource Center.Web. 1 Mar. 2012
The first sentence was very positive and uplifting. To understand some of the article you have to remember history. The article was written in 1929. During that time, there was segregation and racism. Knowing that, the first section is clear because Du Bois recommends this novel, but states it is a forbidden subject. In those times, intermarriage was forbidden, and it surprising, but also touching that Nella Larsen was bold enough to write about a subject forbidden for the society to comprehend and accept in those times. The second section gets away from the topic a little. He goes on saying at the time, it was important to state whether you were partly colored. As history shows, and also in this section, many people knew they were part negro and tried to hide it. Keeping ones identity was crucial and could be fatal, but I disagree with the people who did this. Towards the end, it comes back to the focus point, which is on the novel. Du Bois praises Nella Larsen for showing the psychological meaning of the book, meaning the internal conflicts about ones’ identity and choosing to deny or embrace it; not only that but also the jealousy and test of friendship, the ability to go from friends to enemies and vice versa. He describes the two major characters, Irene and Clare. Irene embraces her race, has a dark husband, and loves her boys. Clare is described as almost perfect. She is beautiful and lives in the white world, even though she’s part negro. Both these women envy each other in different aspects. Du Bois uses the words “race-conscious Puritan” for Irene and “lonesome hedonist” for Clare. There is a twist though, maybe it was no surprise for some…the triangle that is formed with Irene’s husband, who is described as a cynical keen rebel. This article was very helpful and insightful. I love the last sentence. It is simple and clear, just like how Du Bois intended it to be. “Buy the book.”Throughout school we have been taught about the Harlem Renaissance. The time when African Americans exceled in music and literature; they all came as one for the same cause. We have been taught the upsides, but not as much of the downside. The author, Gerald Early, starts saying scholars speak of the disillusionment, discontent, and despair caused by the disappointment after WWII started the events in the twenties. He reminds us not to forget the time period between 1913 and 1920. He brings up four amendments that were passed during this time. In 1913, the federal income tax and the direct election of senators, prohibition in 1919, and women’s right to vote in 1919. His intention in pointing the previous amendments is because he believes even without the tragedy of all Europe being at war, the twenties would still have happened as we know now. He gives more insight on the renaissance continuing this section. He talks about the development of jazz with Duke Ellington and Langston Hughes. Also, I learned Battling Siki and Tiger Flowers were champions in boxing, helping the renaissance. It continues on by giving examples of poets and how they impacted the renaissance. The article infers the renaissance was more than making a difference, but instead it was possibly about achieving honor by the oppressed.
- McMillan, T.S.. “Passing Beyond: The Novels of Nella Larsen.” Philological Papers 38 (1992): p134-146.Twentieth-Century Literary Criticism. Vol. 200. Detroit: Gale. From Literature Resource Center. 2 Mar. 2012
It starts off with criticizing her two short stories at the beginning. The author definitely does not particularly like Nella Larsen’s work. He starts off stating there are three narrow paths Passing has taken. The three are finding faults in the “stylistic” difficulties, labeling the work as a “Black novel”, and finally confining it in the section of women books. The author believes Passing has a bad development and because of its fault, cannot pass mediocrity. It does not go into a lot of detail, but we can assume the ending will be too hard to believe. The reason is because the author explains the ending to be made up. of course it is made up, but what it means is the ending will wipe away all the problems for it to be like nothing happened. He also mentions how this book instead of dealing with the renaissance and the conflicts of black women, deals with politics and the status quo. Also, the author includes other authors which make the inference that instead of race a conflict, which is what the book is meant to be about, it is about gender. It might be understandable to believe this opinion because it is left for the reader to infer whether or not Irene killed Clare because Clare wanted her husband.The article was a biography of Nella Larsen. It gives evidence of how Nella Larsen puts herself into her stories. In Quicksand, the character, Helga, is of mixed race, same as Nella Larsen. With that being said, it makes sense and is logical to believe that is true. Nella Larsen was alienated from her family, which she portrays in Helga, as the article states. Larsen felt she was best suited for writing about mulattoes was because of her experiences and background. The article is not a normal biography as others. It relates the stories with her life. The women desire and how to behave lady like was a troublesome subject in Larsen’s time and for her characters as well. I think Larsen tried to empty out her feelings with her stories. For her to try and tell people of her inside thoughts, questions, and doubts, but trying not to let the reader know it was her. one can only infer, which is what I believe is what she tried to do and what the author of this article tried to do as well. I liked this article because it makes one think deeply in a psychological way about her life and if her stories were related to her life accidentally or if they had a purpose.
- “PASSING.” Publishers Weekly.246.29 (July 19, 1999): p186. From Literature Resource Center.Web. 28 Feb. 2012
This article starts off by saying the title of the book describes the book well. It explains the term “passing” normally means hiding the truth dealing with race and sexuality. The author of the article explains how the title clearly applies to the conflicts using evidence from the short novel. The title of the article first intrigued me because the title was the same as of the book. I was not very sure of what it meant. Honestly, I thought it would give a better description of what the author of the article thought and of their criticism. The paragraph clearly states one simple definition of passing and how it applies to the book. It did give insight of what to expect however. The article makes one think what will have to happen so the truth comes out; whenever something is dealing with lies, it intrigues us more, which is what the article did, even if it was very simple and self-explanatory. The last sentence in the paragraph is a bit bewildering because at the beginning, the author is telling you what to expect, but at the end it leaves you to wonder how many twists and turns the story will take. It comments also there will be many narrators, which can confuse the readers. Overall, this article was helpful in certain ways, for example how it agrees with the title, and others it wasn’t, as in it didn’t criticize the book, just gave a very diminutive summary.- “'Passing' Across The Color Line In The Jazz Age.” All Things Considered. (Apr. 7, 2010): From Literature Resource Center.Web. 27 Feb. 2012
This article is actually an audio file of an interview with Ms. Heidi Durrow. The host starts out by introducing her and turns out that her mother is Danish and her father is African American. She discusses one of her favorite books, Passing. She explains it deals with having to live up to a reputation and getting rid of the labels society has upon us. She must have dealt with that also possibly, even though she was born later. The mix of cultures and labels is something anyone can relate to. It was also stated that Nella Larsen was the first African American descent to win the Guggenheim fellowship. Throughout the article Ms. Durrow mentions repetively that the book deals with accepting whom one is. I did not like that it was so repetitive. Although, I did find it interesting how one author relates to another. Reading this article not only made me think about how the characters within it felt, but also I reflected upon myself. Passing…I now believe everyone goes through. I like the line “You may not identify with being a light-skinned African-American, but you have probably felt at some point that what was most important about you wasn't visible.” I like it because it can make readers relate this article and the book. Reading/hearing this article made me really intrigued to read the novel and to think about how it relates to all of us even when we don’t realize it. That’s what makes a great review and book.About in the second half of the nineteenth century, African American writers began to experiment writing about the complex lives and contradictions of American society dealing with race. The author emphasizes the “white blacks” played an important role in the imagination of such writers. Throughout the years, analysts of have tried to determine the strategy Larsen used for Passing. The two possible strategies they have are whether the narrations serve a purpose in reinforcing hegemonic norms dealing with race or if it suggests passing is an inevitable survival strategy. The author continues on to say, Passing helps critics understand that passing for something leads to questions of specific identities ranging from oneself to an identity in general. As the article continues, it talks about the hegemony will always exist in any given society. It states examples, which are race is a performative repetition meaning it works perfomatively giving a name to a reference rather than a single subject, assumption of whiteness and contradictions of race, which means the mixed people who could pass for white were assumed to be white until evidence was found, the specific operations of race performativity, and identification trouble which means, as before stated, the inner conflicts of accepting who one is and embrace and show that part of oneself or hide who you truly are and your past.
Nella Larsen published two novels at the peak of the renaissance. As quickly as she wrote them and how her fame rose, it all went away and she was left to obscurity. After writing Passing, Nella Larsen disappeared from the renaissance and from literature; even though, her works were praised and favored even at times of racism and prejudice. The author describes of how Larsen invites the reader in and how she emphasizes the characters by appearances, education, and their social class. Larsen does a well job of describing the struggles within concerning identity. Both her novels discuss the hardships of being a black woman. Not only in equality, but also the prejudice and sexual complications that occur in while they are on their journey trying to reach peace with one self and finding their wholesome identity. The author then evaluates Quicksand and Passing. Quicksand deals with being isolated from your family and your community. The setting in the story is similar to Nella Larsen’s life because she lived at the same places and also attended the same college. In Passing, the author reveals to us how Irene and Clare feel about each other. One can learn that insecurity, jealousy, and weak-minded can destroy a friendship. The more and more I read this article the more I am interested in reading the novel.