Passing: A Norton Critical Edition
Nella Larsen is a central figure in African American, Modernist, and women’s literature.

Larsen's status as a Harlem Renaissance woman writer was rivaled by only Zora Neale Hurston’s. This Norton Critical Edition of her electrifying 1929 novel includes Carla Kaplan’s detailed and thought-provoking introduction, thorough explanatory annotations, and a Note on the Text. An unusually rich “Background and Contexts” section connects the novel to the historical events of the day, most notably the sensational Rhinelander/Jones case of 1925. Fourteen contemporary reviews are reprinted, including those by Alice Dunbar-Nelson, Mary Griffin, and W. E. B. Du Bois. Published accounts from 1911 to 1935—by Langston Hughes, Juanita Ellsworth, and Caleb Johnson, among others—provide a nuanced view of the contemporary cultural dimensions of race and passing, both in America and abroad. Also included are Larsen’s statements on the novel and on passing, as well as a generous selection of her letters and her central writings on “The Tragic Mulatto(a)” in American literature. Additional perspective is provided by related Harlem Renaissance works. “Criticism” provides fifteen diverse critical interpretations, including those by Mary Helen Washington, Cheryl A. Wall, Deborah E. McDowell, David L. Blackmore, Kate Baldwin, and Catherine Rottenberg. A Chronology and Selected Bibliography are also included.
1147701029
Passing: A Norton Critical Edition
Nella Larsen is a central figure in African American, Modernist, and women’s literature.

Larsen's status as a Harlem Renaissance woman writer was rivaled by only Zora Neale Hurston’s. This Norton Critical Edition of her electrifying 1929 novel includes Carla Kaplan’s detailed and thought-provoking introduction, thorough explanatory annotations, and a Note on the Text. An unusually rich “Background and Contexts” section connects the novel to the historical events of the day, most notably the sensational Rhinelander/Jones case of 1925. Fourteen contemporary reviews are reprinted, including those by Alice Dunbar-Nelson, Mary Griffin, and W. E. B. Du Bois. Published accounts from 1911 to 1935—by Langston Hughes, Juanita Ellsworth, and Caleb Johnson, among others—provide a nuanced view of the contemporary cultural dimensions of race and passing, both in America and abroad. Also included are Larsen’s statements on the novel and on passing, as well as a generous selection of her letters and her central writings on “The Tragic Mulatto(a)” in American literature. Additional perspective is provided by related Harlem Renaissance works. “Criticism” provides fifteen diverse critical interpretations, including those by Mary Helen Washington, Cheryl A. Wall, Deborah E. McDowell, David L. Blackmore, Kate Baldwin, and Catherine Rottenberg. A Chronology and Selected Bibliography are also included.
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Passing: A Norton Critical Edition

Passing: A Norton Critical Edition

Passing: A Norton Critical Edition

Passing: A Norton Critical Edition

Overview

Nella Larsen is a central figure in African American, Modernist, and women’s literature.

Larsen's status as a Harlem Renaissance woman writer was rivaled by only Zora Neale Hurston’s. This Norton Critical Edition of her electrifying 1929 novel includes Carla Kaplan’s detailed and thought-provoking introduction, thorough explanatory annotations, and a Note on the Text. An unusually rich “Background and Contexts” section connects the novel to the historical events of the day, most notably the sensational Rhinelander/Jones case of 1925. Fourteen contemporary reviews are reprinted, including those by Alice Dunbar-Nelson, Mary Griffin, and W. E. B. Du Bois. Published accounts from 1911 to 1935—by Langston Hughes, Juanita Ellsworth, and Caleb Johnson, among others—provide a nuanced view of the contemporary cultural dimensions of race and passing, both in America and abroad. Also included are Larsen’s statements on the novel and on passing, as well as a generous selection of her letters and her central writings on “The Tragic Mulatto(a)” in American literature. Additional perspective is provided by related Harlem Renaissance works. “Criticism” provides fifteen diverse critical interpretations, including those by Mary Helen Washington, Cheryl A. Wall, Deborah E. McDowell, David L. Blackmore, Kate Baldwin, and Catherine Rottenberg. A Chronology and Selected Bibliography are also included.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9780393979169
Publisher: Norton, W. W. & Company, Inc.
Publication date: 09/04/2007
Series: Norton Critical Editions Series
Edition description: First Edition
Pages: 584
Product dimensions: 5.10(w) x 8.50(h) x 1.20(d)

About the Author

Carla Kaplan is the Davis Distinguished Professor of American Literature at Northeastern University. She is the author of The Erotics of Talk: Women's Writing and Feminist Paradigms, Zora Neale Hurston: A Life in Letters, and Miss Anne in Harlem: The White Women of the Black Renaissance (forthcoming). She is also editor of Every Tongue Got to Confess: Negro Folk Tales from the Gulf States and Dark Symphony and Other Works by Elizabeth Laura Adams.

Table of Contents


Introduction: Nella Larsen's Erotics of Race     ix
Acknowledgments     xxix
A Note on the Text     xxxi
The Text of Passing     1
Backgrounds and Contexts     83
Reviews     85
"Passing" Is a Novel of Longings (April 27, 1929)     85
Beyond the Color Line (April 28, 1929)     85
The Color Line (April 28, 1929)     87
The Dilemma of Mixed Race: Another Study of the Color-line in New York (May 1, 1929)     88
As in a Looking Glass (May 3, 1929)     90
Touch of the Tar-brush (May 18, 1929)     91
Passing (June 1929)     93
The Cat Came Back (June 5, 1929)     94
Novel of Race Consciousness (June 23, 1929)     96
Passing (July 1929)     97
Passing (July 1929)     99
Passing (Aug. 1929)     99
Do They Always Return? (Sept. 28, 1929)     101
Passing (Dec. 1929)     102
Passing (Dec. 12, 1929)     102
Contemporary Coverage of Passing and Race     105
When Is a Caucasian Not a Caucasian? (March 2, 1911)     105
Writer Says Brazil Has No Color Line (Oct. 1925)     107
Does It Pay to "Pass?" (Aug. 20, 1927)     107
From White Negroes (May-June 1928)     109
3,000 Negroes Cross the Line Each Year (July 12, 1928)     111
From Negro to Caucasion, Or How the Ethiopian Is Changing His Skin (1929)     112
Crossing the Color Line (July 28, 1929)     117
From Crossing the Color Line (Aug. 26, 1931)     121
75,000 Pass in Philadelphia Every Day (Dec. 19, 1931)     123
Careful Lyncher! He May Be Your Brother (Jan. 21, 1932)     124
Blonde Girl Was 'Passing' (Jan. 23, 1932)     125
Virginia Is Still Hounding 'White' Negroes Who 'Pass'     126
The Rhinelander/Jones Case     129
Society Youth Weds Cabman's Daughter (Nov. 14, 1924)     129
Poor Girl to Fight Hubby's Parents (Dec. 26, 1924)     130
From Calls Rhinelander Dupe of Girl He Wed (Nov. 10, 1925)     133
From Loved Rhinelander, Wife's Letters Say (Nov. 13, 1925)     134
From Rhinelander Bares Love Secrets (Nov. 21, 1925)     137
From Kip's "Soul Message" Notes Read (Nov. 28. 1925)     138
From Rhinelander Jury Reaches a Decision after Twelve Hours (Dec. 5, 1925)     145
[Rhinelander Editorial], The Crisis (Jan. 1926)     147
Rhinelander Gets a Fair Deal (Jan. 26, 1926)     147
Mrs. Rhinelander to Sail (July 16, 1926)      148
About Nella Larsen     149
New Author Unearthed Right Here in Harlem (May 23, 1928)     149
Behind the Backs of Books and Authors (April 13, 1929)     150
Jean Blackwell Hutson to Louise Fox (Aug. 1, 1969)     151
Author's Statements     152
[Nella Larsen Imes, Guggenheim Application]     152
[In Defense of Sanctuary]     156
Letters     158
To Carl Van Vechten [1925]     158
To Charles S. Johnson [Aug. 1926]     158
To Eddie Wasserman [April 3, 1928]     161
To Eddie Wasserman [April 5, 1928]     161
To Dorothy Peterson [n.d.]     162
To Dorothy Peterson [July 19, 1927]     163
To Dorothy Peterson [July 21, 1927]     164
To Dorothy Peterson [Aug. 2, 1927]     166
To Langston Hughes [n.d.]     167
To Langston Hughes [1930]     168
To Carl Van Vechten [April 15, 1929]     168
To Gertrude Stein (Jan. 26, 1931)     169
To Carl Van Vechten [May 14, 1932]     170
The Tragic Mulatto (A)     171
The Quadroons     171
From The Garies and Their Friends     180
From Clotel     192
From Iola Leroy      200
From An Imperative Duty     207
The Father of Desiree's Baby     213
From Pudd'nhead Wilson     218
From The House Behind the Cedars     220
The Octoroon     227
Near White     227
Mulatto     227
From Imitation of Life     229
Selections from Stories and Novels of Passing: "The Moment of Regret"     243
From Iola Leroy     243
From The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man     248
From Flight     257
From Plum Bun     262
From Black No More     270
Passing     281
Selected Writings from the Harlem Renaissance     285
The Mulatto to His Critics     285
The Sleeper Wakes     285
Heritage     308
Two Who Crossed a Line     311
Criteria of Negro Art     312
Freedom     320
From The Negro-Art Hokum     324
From Nigger Heaven     326
Passing for White, Passing for Colored, Passing for Negroes Plus     332
Criticism     335
Nella Larsen's Passing: A Study in Irony     337
Nella Larsen's Passing: A Problem of Interpretation      342
Nella Larsen: Mystery Woman of the Harlem Renaissance     350
From Passing for What? Aspects of Identity in Nella Larsen's Novels     356
[From Black Female Sexuality in Passing]     363
Nella Larsen's Harlem Aesthetic     379
From Miscegenation and "The Dicta of Race and Class": The Rhinelander Case and Nella Larsen's Passing     387
Clare Kendry's "True" Colors: Race and Class Conflict in Nella Larsen's Passing     393
From Sororophobia     409
Passing, Queering: Nella Larsen's Psychoanalytic Challenge     417
From Passing Fancies     435
Nella Larsen and the Veil of Race     444
From The Recurring Conditions of Nella Larsen's Passing     463
Passing and Domestic Tragedy     486
Passing: Race, Identification, and Desire     489
Racial Etiquette: Nella Larsen's Passing and the Rhinelander Case     507
A Chronology     533
Selected Bibliography   Ruth Blandon   Lucia Hodgson     539
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