Mixed Race Studies

Racial/Ethnic Variation in Parenting Styles: The Experience of Multiracial Adolescents

Bowling Green State University
December 2011
57 pages

Amanda N. House

According to the 2009 American Community Survey, 2.4% of the U.S. population consists of individuals who identify as two or more races, or multiracial. Nearly half of this estimate captures children under the age of 18, and the multiracial population continues to grow. There is previous literature on racial identification and friendship networks among multiracials, though little attention has been paid to the family experiences of multiracial children and adolescents. Adolescence is often a difficult life stage, and multiracial adolescents may face more adversity than monoracial adolescents with added identity concerns. Parents may react to these unique challenges by adjusting their parenting behaviors. Using the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (n = 13,395), the present study examines parenting behaviors and parenting styles among monoracial and multiracial adolescents and extends this research by further dissecting the multiracial group. Results show that among levels of parental warmth, there are no significant differences between monoracial and multiracial adolescents. However, on average, Black adolescents report higher levels of parental control than multiracial adolescents. Among multiracial adolescents, no significant differences were found between multiracial White and multiracial non-White adolescents, or between multiracial Black and multiracial non-Black adolescents, with respect to levels of parental warmth or parental control. Results also show that Asian adolescents are more likely than multiracial adolescents to experience authoritarian parenting than to experience authoritative parenting. Among the multiracial group, multiracial White adolescents are more likely than multiracial non-White adolescents to experience neglectful parenting than to experience authoritative parenting. No significant racial differences were found between multiracial Black and multiracial non-Black adolescents with respect to parenting styles.

Read the entire dissertation here.

‘Perpetual others’: The role of culture, race, and nation in the formation of a mixed-race identity

University of Minnesota
June 2004
275 pages
Publication Number: AAT 3149283
ISBN: 9780496086603

Jacquetta Elizabeth Amdahl

A THESIS SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF THE UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY

The insistence upon a racial identity for multiracial blacks that is not singularly African American has been problematic throughout American history. The link between a racial identity that publicly acknowledges one’s ties to the African American community and the private ownership of one’s complete ancestry has been one that has been consistently tenuous for blacks of multiracial heritage. However, the first generation of openly multiracial African American artists have utilized their visibility in popular culture, as well as work they do within it, as spaces in which to forcefully assert this link. By consciously embracing and cultivating both public and private racial identities, they have distinguished themselves from the postracialist and even anti-black sentiments espoused by leaders and scholars within the Multiracial Category Movement (MCM).

This project explores the links between cultural expression, racial formation, and political agency through the investigation of the public lives and artistic expression of multiracial artists born between 1964 and 1970. These individuals were chosen because of their proximity to the Loving v. Virginia decision that overturned anti-miscegenation statutes. They are the first generation of officially recognized multiracial African Americans.

The project further examines the links between gender and race in representations of multiracial African Americans, as well as the history of the mixed race black population, and finally, the rise of the Multiracial Category Movement, and multiracial studies. Through these explorations, the inherently political nature of race is uncovered, and the public nature of racial identity is revealed. Finally, it concludes that the need for a fluid and expanded notion of African American identity, rather than the broadening of the definitions of whiteness, is the necessary answer to questions surrounding multiracial African American identities.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

• Introduction: From African American to Multiracial? Racial Identity and Public Discourse
• Chapter 1: Reports from the ‘Third Space’: The Music and Visual Presence of Mixed Race Artists in Popular Culture
  • The Hughes Brothers
  • Lenny Kravitz
  • Vin Diesel
• Chapter 2:From Tragic Mulatto to Erotically Autonomous Black Woman: Halle Berry’s Journey to Monster’s Ball
• Chapter 3: From Blue Vein Societies to Black Power: The ‘Mulatto Elite’ and the Black/White Binary
  • The Beginnings of Separate but Equal
  • The New Negro
  • The Quest to Solve the ‘American Dilemma’
• Chapter 4: Beyond the Private Realm: The Multiracialist Struggle with Public Racial Identities
  • The Multiracial Category Movement (MCM)
  • Multiracial Studies
  • Postracialists
  • Critical Scholarship lhat Explores Multiracial Issues
• Epilogue: Still ‘A Family Affair’: Implications of a Multiracial African American Identity

Purchase the dissertation here.

Biracial vs. Monoracial Ethnic Identity: Differences in Trait Anxiety, Social Anxiety and Depression

The American University
2004
44 pages
Publication Number: AAT 1423925
ISBN: 9780496127542

Victoria Hope Coleman

Submitted to the Faculty of the College of Arts and Sciences of American University in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts in Clinical Psychology

This study compared monoracial (African-American and European American) with Biracial participants on measures of depression and anxiety. Results indicate that Biracial participants as a whole are no more likely to exhibit elevated anxiety and depression symptoms than monoracial groups. However, when Biracial participants were divided into two groups (i.e., those who identify as monoracial and those who identify as Biracial), it was noted that the Biracial group who identified as African-American reported significantly higher levels of depression and trait anxiety symptoms than Biracial individuals who identified as Biracial. An integrated identity (i.e., identifying oneself as Biracial) appears to be associated with less severe anxiety and depressive symptomatology. Within the African-American sample, gender differences in depression were observed, and low acculturation was found to correlate with higher fear of negative evaluation. A measure of the affective component of acculturation revealed significant differences in African-American and European-American populations. Further research is needed to examine the complexities of the Biracial identity process and identify strategies by which a Biracial individual can more easily navigate through it.

Purchase the dissertation here.

The Effect of a Biracial identity Development Program on Feelings of Alienation in Biracial Children

University of San Francisco
December 2004
94 pages
Publication Number: AAT 3156115
ISBN: 9780496168002

Robin E. Schulte

A Dissertation Presented to The Faculty of the School of Education Counseling Psychology Department In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirement for the Degree Doctor of Psychology

Research on biracial individuals has primarily been done on Black/White mixed individuals. This study examines the effects of a biracial identity development program on feelings of alienation for Asian/Caucasian and Latino/Caucasian children. A single-subject research design was conducted on three female participants, two of Asian/Caucasian descent and the third of Latino/Caucasian descent. The purpose of the research was to demonstrate whether a biracial identity development program would prevent a cultural identity crisis from forming. This was accomplished by measuring the participant’s levels of alienation. The program utilized concepts from social learning theory and incorporated various activities which included, role-modeling, the Kinetic Family Drawing, bibliotherapy, and family meetings. The social environment and cultural factors such as the race of peers, relatives, communities, and friends were examined. Results indicated that the program was not as effective as previously hypothesized. However, results also showed that this may have been due to the way the program outcome was measured.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

• CHAPTER ONE: Introduction
  • Statement of the Problem
  • Procedures
  • Definitions
  • Implications of the Study
  • Significance of the Study
• CHAPTER TWO: REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE
  • Intermarried Couples
  • Biracial Offspring
    • A Model of Ethnic Identity Development
    • Physical Appearance
  • Counseling Interracial Families and their Children
    • Principles of Working with Interracial Couples
    • Implications for Counselors Working with Biracial Child
  • Biracial Research
    • Biracial Identity Development
  • Therapy and Biracial Identity Development
  • Social Learning Theory
  • Alienation
  • Conclusion
• CHAPTER THREE: METHOD
  • Restatement of the Major Research Question
  • Research Design
  • Participants
  • Protection of Human Subjects
  • Procedures
  • Treatment
    • Week 1
    • Week 2
    • Week 3
    • Week 4
    • Week 5
  • Instrumentation
    • Structured Interview:
    • The MEIM
  • Reliability
    • Structured Interview:
    • The Multigroup Ethnic Identity Measure
  • Validity:
  • Data Collection
    • Structured Interview
    • Revised Version of the MEIM:
    • Alienation Log
  • Data Analysis
    • Structured Interview
    • Revised Version of the MEIM
    • Alienation Log
• CHAPTER FOUR: RESULTS
  • Alienation Scores
    • Participant 1
    • Participant 2
    • Participant 3
  • Revised MEIM Scores
  • Social Validation Observations
    • Participant 1
      • Week 1-Baseline
      • Week 2
      • Week 3
      • Week 4
      • Week 5
      • Feedback Session
    • Participant 2
      • Week 1-Baseline
      • Week 2
      • Week 3
      • Week 4
      • Week 5
      • Feedback Session
    • Participant 3
      • Week 1-Baseline
      • Week 2
      • Week 3
      • Week 4
      • Week 5
      • Feedback Session
  • Summary
• SECTION FIVE: DISCUSSION
  • Limitations of the Study
    • Internal Validity
  • Recommendations
  • Implications for Practice
  • Conclusion
• APPENDICES
• REFERENCES

Purchase the dissertation here.

A Phenomenological Study of the Life Experiences of Biracial Adolescents

The Chicago School of Professional Psychology
September 7, 2004
86 pages
Publication Number: AAT 3177441
ISBN: 9780542168468

Nicole Alease Tefera

A Dissertation Submitted to the Faculty of The Chicago School of Professional Psychology In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements For the Degree of Doctor of Psychology

The “biracial baby boom” (Root, 1996, p. xv) in the United States started approximately 25 years ago around the time the final laws against miscegenation were repealed by the United States Supreme Court 1967 decision (Loving v. Virginia, 1967). After the historical ruling, the number of children being born to parents with different racial backgrounds tripled from less than 400,000 in 1970 to 1.5 million in 1990 (Wright, 1994). The emergence of a racially mixed population is rapidly changing the face of the United States causing Americans to ask questions related to our identity such as: (a) Who are we?, (b) How do we see ourselves?, and (c) Who are we in relation to one another? These questions originate in a country that has maintained particular views of race and one that subscribed to race as a fixed construct, perceived itself as White, and has been dedicated to preserving racial lines. Therefore, the questions posed in relation to race and identity can only be expected to contribute to an identity crisis that this country is unprepared to resolve. Resolving the identity crisis may force Americans to reexamine our construction of race and the hierarchal social order it supports (Root, 1992).

During the past two decades, interracial marriages have produced biracial children, many of whom are now adolescents and young adults, located primarily in urban areas in the East, the Midwest, and the West Coast (Gibbs, 1987). According to the 2000 U.S. Census, there are approximately 6.8 million individuals in this country who identify as two or more races (U.S. Census Bureau, 2000). However, no reliable estimates of Black-White youth are available. Based on the current statistics of Black-White marriages, it can only be hypothesized that these unions produce nearly one-fourth of biracial children in the United States of America. The dual racial identity of a biracial adolescent is likely to pose a challenge in the development of a cohesive, well-integrated self-concept.

This phenomenological study explored the life experiences of six biracial adolescents (Travis, Karen, Shelly, Michael, Erin, and Ayana) of European American and African American decent living in both the inner city and surrounding suburbs of a large urban city located in the Midwest. Data was analyzed horizontally and vertically to ascertain the meanings of being biracial, specifically during adolescence. Themes emerged with respect to the participants’ ethnic/racial identification, experiences in adolescence, social influences, and racial resemblance.

This study revealed tasks for identity formation and biracial identity development during adolescence. Participants in this study clearly struggled with normal adolescent identity formation while simultaneously attempting to integrate their dual racial heritage. As with identity formation models, peer influences were most influential in how participants’ identified themselves. Therefore, one can hypothesize that biracial identity development and identity formation are not mutually exclusive. With respect to clinical implications, this theory offers the assumption that treatment interventions should focus on helping the adolescent to effectively navigate through normal identity formation while simultaneously addressing conflict surrounding their dual racial/ethnic background.

Table of Contents

• Copyright.
• Signature Page.
• Acknowledgements
• Abstract
• List of Tables
• Chapter 1: Introduction
  • Statement of Topic
  • Rationale for the Study
• Chapter 2: Literature Review
  • Identity Formation in Adolescence
  • Racial/Ethnic Identity Development
  • Biracial Identity Development
  • Models of Biracial Identity Development
  • Review of Research on Biracial Youth and Young Adults
• Chapter 3: Methodology
  • Methodology and Participants
  • Procedures
  • Analysis
• Chapter 4: Presentation of Data Analysis
  • Participant #2: Travis
  • Participant #3: Karen
  • Participant #4: Shelly
  • Participant #5: Michael
  • Participant #6: Erin
  • Participant #7: Ayana
  • Composite Description of Participant Interviews
• Chapter 5 Summary, Implications, and Outcomes
  • Emerging Themes
  • Limitations of the Study
• References
• Appendix A: Demographic Questionnaire
• Appendix B: Study Participant (ages 12-17) Assent Form
• Appendix C: Study Participant (Age 18) Informed Consent Form
• Appendix D: Parent Informed Consent Form
• Appendix E: Interview Guide
• Appendix F: Advertisement

Purchase the dissertation here.

Historical trauma: The impact of colonial racism on contemporary relations between African Americans and Mexican immigrants

Colorado State University
Spring 2011
114 pages
Publication Number: AAT 1492454
ISBN: 9781124645148

Noah M. Wright

Submitted by Noah M. Wright Department of Ethnic Studies In partial fulfillment of the requirements For the Degree of Master of Arts Colorado State University Fort Collins, Colorado

The purpose of this project is to examine tensions in present day United States between African Americans and Mexican immigrants. Hyper-violent incidents of interracial gang violence between these two communities are presented by mainstream media as signifiers of the existence of the tension. Latinos, as a whole, and African Americans, whether in gangs or civilians, are often portrayed to be in competition due to three conventional explanations. While scholars and media sources have validity in pointing out the significance of socioeconomic competition, struggles for political power and the problems that the language barrier create, these explanations are not complete. El sistema de castas or the caste system, a racial hierarchy created by the Spaniards in Latin America during their colonial efforts, established how people of African descent, both free and slave, were treated in New Spain. The caste system’s continued influence can be seen with the denial of African heritage and the marginalized position of Afro-Mexicans in present day Mexico. Furthermore, these prejudices remain intact when Mexican immigrants enter the U.S. It is understood that Mexico’s national identity is mestizaje, a racially mixed nation; however, racism existed and is also present today in Mexico. By combining a historical perspective with the three primary reasons, mentioned above, it is hoped that the complete picture will help resolve tensions. This thesis argues that colonization, influenced heavily by a racial hierarchy, has caused Mexican immigrants to carry with them prejudices towards African Americans that were learned in Mexico, showing that the issue is deeper than competition over resources in present times. In response to an influx of Latino immigrants, African American responses show parallels with historical nativist responses to immigrants. By combining the impacts of historical racism with conventional explanations for the existence of the tension it is hoped an understanding may develop that will help reduce conflict.

Purchase the disseration here.

Biracial Identity Development: Understanding a Sense of Self

California State University, Long Beach
December 2009
47 pages

Ghislaine P. Dibong

Presented to the Department of Social Work California State University, Long Beach In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Master of Social Work

The purpose of this project was to explore the challenges faced by mixed-race individuals and the impact of racial identity development on their social and psychological well-being through a narrative format. Literature surrounding biracial identity development, racial socialization, and bicultural identity were reviewed. The relevance of narratives in the field of academia and the link to social work practice was also explored. The narrative depicts the life of a biracial immigrant traveling across the world in search of the “American Dream” and how the challenges she faced led her to a career in social work. The author desires that her story will help social workers better understand the challenges faced by mixed-race people to ensure that the needs of this population will be attended to, and to enlighten through her personal story.

Read the entire thesis here.

Religion and Racial Identity in the Movimento Negro of the Roman Catholic Church in Brazil

Iliff School of Theology and The University of Denver (Colorado Seminary)
June 1995
302 pages

Alan Doyle Myatt

A Dissertation Presented to the Faculties of The Iliff School of Theology and The University of Denver (Colorado Seminary) In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy

This project is a study of the interaction of religion with the process of racial identity construction in the black movement within the Brazilian Roman Catholic Church. The fundamental problem facing the movement is how to construct a viable black identity in the midst of a social situation filled with ambiguity and opposition. The process of this social construction of racial identity is the key problem explored in this dissertation.

The multi-racial polity of Brazilian society includes many racial designations for Brazilians of African descent. These identities are supported by the notions of Racial Democracy and whitening. Racial democracy is the idea that Brazilian society contains very little racial prejudice and discrimination. Whitening is the doctrine that the extensive racial mixing in Brazil has the effect of creating an increasingly whiter society. The social status of blacks may allegedly be improved through whitening. In this context very few Brazilians choose to identify themselves as blacks.

The study uses Berger and Luckmann’s sociology of knowledge and James Scott’s theory of the resistance of subordinate peoples to domination as its theoretical framework. The thesis argued is that the movimento negro is attempting to build a black identity by drawing on the history of black resistance that has been largely hidden, and constructing a new universe of meaning. The movement draws upon liberation theology, traditional Roman Catholicism, and Afro-Brazilian religions to achieve this. The research was based on field work in Brazil and focused on the analysis of interviews with movement activists as well as movement publications, documents, and videos. Long interviews were conducted according to a prepared guide, but in an open-ended fashion.

It was found that the notions of racial democracy and whitening are not plausible and that they act to inhibit blacks from overcoming problems due to racial discrimination. It was also determined that Afro-Brazilian religions, Catholicism, and liberation theology provide resources that enable movement activists to create a new racial identity, involving an essentialist notion of blackness, that did not previously exist. The conclusion that religion is an important resource in resistance to domination was supported.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

• 1. RELIGION, RACIAL IDENTITY AND THE MOVIMENTO NEGRO: THEORY AND METHOD
• 2. THE HISTORICAL AND CULTURAL CONTEXT OF THE MOVIMENTO NEGRO: DEFINING THE BRAZILIAN RACIAL ETHOS
• 3. THE MOVIMENTO NEGRO IN THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH: ORIGINS AND ORGANIZATION
• 4. THE DAILY STRUGGLE: PERSPECTIVES FROM WITHIN THE MOVIMENTO
• 5. THE CONSTRUCTION OF RACIAL IDENTITY AND THE RECONSTRUCTION OF SOCIAL REALITY
• 6. CONCLUSION
• BIBLIOGRAPHY
• APPENDIX 1: INTERVIEW QUESTIONS
• APPENDIX 2: EXCERPT FROM AGENTES DE PASTORAL NEGROS: ORIGEM, HISTÓRIA E ORGANIZAÇÃO

CHAPTER 1: RELIGION, RACIAL IDENTITY AND THE MOVIMENTO NEGRO: THEORY AND METHOD

The struggle for social justice has been the dominant theme of the various theologies of liberation originating in Latin America and now spread throughout the world. While liberation theology has traditionally focused on issues of economic justice defined in terms of class conflict, more recently liberation theology has been influential in the rise of feminist and black theologies in North America. This trend has also become apparent in Latin America where in 1984 a conference called “Conference on Black Culture and Theology in Latin America” was held by the Ecumenical Association of Third World Theologians (ASETT). The proceedings were published under the title Identidade Negra e Religião: Consulta sobre Cultura Negra e Teologia na América Latina (Black Identity and Religion: Conference on Black Culture and Theology in Latin America- ASETT 1986). The conference and book provide an example of the activity of black theologians and lay  people wrestling with the racial situation in Latin America and the implications of liberation theology when this situation is considered.

The Conference on Black Culture and Theology in Latin America was held in São Paulo with about two-thirds of the participants being Brazilian (ASETT 1986, 13, 79-80). This was a natural location as São Paulo serves as the center of the movimento negro (black movement) that has developed in the Roman Catholic Church of Brazil since the late 1970s. This study will focus on the movimento negro in the Roman Catholic Church of Brazil, documenting its origins and discussing its struggle to sustain an agenda for black liberation…

…An outline of the ethical ethos of race relations in Brazil will provide an essential context for understanding the movimento negro in Brazilian Catholicism. An exposition of this ethos will be given in chapter two. Meanwhile the two central aspects of this ethos, “racial democracy” and “whitening,” must be introduced here as a necessary prelude to the theoretical and methodological considerations that form the bulk of this chapter.

Racial democracy is the notion that Brazilian society is relatively free from the racial prejudice, discrimination, and tension found historically in the United States, South Africa, and other western nations. Supporters of this view indicate as evidence in its favor Brazil’s alleged peaceful abolition of slavery, the supposed lack of racial violence, the prominence of blacks in Brazilian historical and literary works, the absence of “Jim Crow” or apartheid laws, and the pervasive miscegenation of Brazilian society (Freyre 1986, 1963a; Degler 1986; Freire-Maia 1987; Fiola 1990).

The presence of widespread miscegenation is itself fundamental to the notion of branqueamento or “whitening” (Marcos Silva 1990, 60ff; Skidmore 1993; Fiola 1990). It is alleged that through the mixing of the various peoples of Brazil, the population as a whole is becoming more white and so being “purified” (Skidmore 1985, 13-14). Beyond the idea of biological change in the composition of Brazilian society there are also notions of social whitening. In the social sense it is said that being white is more valued than being black, leading people to adopt white values and attempt to marry lighter skinned partners (Fiola 1990).

Numerous challenges to the racial democracy and whitening theses have been raised in recent years. As will be shown in a subsequent discussion, these notions can no longer be sustained under scholarly critique. However, black activists go a step further in contending that racial democracy and whitening theories have been deliberately perpetrated by Brazilian elites in order to preserve white superiority. I will argue that racial democracy and whitening are ideologies that are widespread in Brazil and may be said to form a socially constructed ethos of race relations that is still largely accepted by many Brazilians. This ethos forms the critical aspect of the context in which the black movement in Brazil has arisen…

Read the entire dissertation here.

Beyond the Pale: Unsettling “Race” and Womanhood in the Novels of Harper, Hopkins, Fauset and Larsen

McMaster University, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada
December 1996
303 pages

Teresa Christine Zackodnik, Professor of English
University of Alberta, Canada

A thesis Submitted to the School of Graduate Studies in Partial Fulfilment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor Of Philosophy

This dissertation proposes that writers like Frances Harper, Pauline Hopkins, Jessie Fauset, and Nella Larsen “talk out both sides” of their mouths, parodying the values of the black bourgeoisie, racialized notions of womanhood, and understandings of racial difference popular at the turn into the twentieth century. Using complex modes of address, these authors have written novels that in all likelihood were read in different directions by their white and African American readerships. I contend that these narratives would have placated their white readership with familiar forms, while simultaneously forging a sense of community with their African American readers in novels of a highly political nature which questioned and subverted definitions of womanhood and “race”. These “tragic mulatta” and “passing” novels, published from 1892 to 1931 are contextualized with an analysis of three cultural efforts to consolidate turn-of-the-century American beliefs regarding race and gender: legal statutes codifying racial identities, theories of racial difference, and notions of gender identity disseminated through the cult of domesticity. Because the mulatto is neither white nor black, her ambivalent identity and experience make parody a significant trope with which these authors interrogate identity. In order to “pass” for “true women” or for white, these mulatto characters utilize and parody the very qualities designed to ensure the “purity” of whiteness and womanhood. This study argues that such parodies access an African American tradition of parodic performance that played to and on white notions of “blackness” and constructions of white identity. Moving from a consideration of such “signifyin(g)” acts as a challenge to gender and racial identities represented by heroines who pass for “true women,” the study concludes with a consideration of how race, as a political category of description, is destabilized through the representation of heroines who choose to pass for white.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

• CHAPTER 1: Codifying and Quantifying “Race” in Turn-of-the-Century America
• CHAPTER 2: Unsettling “Race” and Womanhood in Tum-of-the-Century America: Frances Harper’s Iola Leroy and Pauline Hopkins’s Contending Forces
• CHAPTER 3: Policing the Bounds of Race: Jessie Fauset’s The Chinaberry Tree and Nella Larsen’s Quicksand
• CHAPTER 4: Transgressions and Excess: Passing as Parodic Performance in Jessie Fauset’s Plum Bun and Nella Larsen’s Passing
• CONCLUSION: New Trajectories of Self-Definition

Read the entire thesis here.

Passing and the figure of the Europeanized American in Edith Wharton’s fiction

Purdue University
2005
216 pages
Publication Number: AAT 3210795
ISBN: 97805425959510

Jasmina Starcevic

A Dissertation Submitted to the Faculty of Purdue University by Jasmina Starcevic In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy

This dissertation traces the evolution of the Europeanized American as a passing figure in five works by Edith Wharton—The House of Mirth (1905), The Custom of the Country (1913), The Age of Innocence (1920), The Old Maid (1924), and The Mother’s Recompense (1925). By reading Wharton’s major fiction through the lens of the passing narrative, I show that the Europeanized American emerges as a vehicle of mediation and the expression of the relationship between the cultures of Europe and America, crucial for exploring the issues of gender, class, race and nationality. I argue that Wharton invests the Europeanized American with the characteristics of the passing subject, thus deploying an ostensibly white figure as the trope of racial difference. Stripped of their fitness for self-government, Europeanized Americans figure as undesirable, unfit, or traitorous subjects vying for the social privileges of the white establishment in the face of psychological persecutions, marginalization, and even death. In order to secure acceptance in the white hegemony, the Europeanized American must engage in a form of passing. Unlike Americans of European descent (or European Americans), Europeanized Americans embody “Europeaness” as an indiscernible trait, not simply visible on the surface of the subject’s body. This important distinction allows Wharton to portray Europeanized Americans as culturally and racially more complex than their European or American “cousins.”

The body of historical and theoretical work on passing produced by prominent social, political, literary and cultural theorists provides the theoretical framework for my analysis of passing in Wharton’s fiction. In Wharton’s major works, passing denotes both psychological and performative aspects of the struggle to acquire social visibility and secure place within the national cultural matrix, and it is directly related to the production of whiteness and American identity. This study establishes the Europeanized American as a passing figure and explores the significance of the figure in Wharton’s major works.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

• INTRODUCTION: Passing in Edith Wharton’s Fiction
• CHAPTER ONE: Passing Through the House of Mirth: The Figure of the Europeanized American in Wharton’s Early Fiction
• CHAPTER TWO: The “Cool Security” of Class: Cross-Racial Theater and Upward Mobility in The Custom of the Country
• CHAPTER THREE: Marriage, Race, and Nation: Passing in The Age of Innocence
• CHAPTER FOUR: Old World Mothers and New World Daughters: Motherhood and Passing in The Old Maid and The Mother’s Recompense
• BIBLIOGRAPHY
• VITA

Purchase the dissertation here.