Passing Novels in the Harlem Renaissance: Identity Politics and Textual StrategiesPosted in Books, Literary/Artistic Criticism, Monographs, Passing, United States on 2011-05-03 01:45Z by Steven |
Passing Novels in the Harlem Renaissance: Identity Politics and Textual Strategies
Lit Verlag Munster
2003
224 pages
ISBN 3-8258-5842-1
Mar Gallego, Associate Professor of American Studies
University of Huelva (Spain)
Passing Novels in the Harlem Renaissance offers an insightful study of the significance of passing novels for the literary and intellectual debate of the Harlem Renaissance. Mar Gallego effectively uncovers the presence of a subversive component in five of these novels (by James Weldon Johnson, George Schuyler, Nella Larsen, and Jessie Fauset), turning them into useful tools to explore the passing phenomenon in all its richness and complexity. Her compelling study intends to contribute to the ongoing revision of the parameters conventionally employed to analyze passing novels by drawing attention to a great variety of textual strategies such as double consciousness, parody, and multiple generic covers. Examining the hybrid nature of these texts, Gallego skillfully highlights their radical critique of the status quo and their celebration of a distinct African American identity.