Literary Criticism - General & Miscellaneous, 20th Century American Literature - General & Miscellaneous - Literary Criticism, United States - Civilization, African Americans - General & Miscellaneous, 20th Century American History - Social Aspects - Gene
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Overview
How and when does literature most effectively uncover race to be a metaphor? The passing figure, a light-skinned African-American capable and willing to pass for white, provides the thematic focus to this provocative study. In exploring the social and cultural history of this distinctly American phenomenon, Bennett moves freely between literature, film, and music, arguing that the passing figure is crucial to our understanding of past and present conceptions of race.Editorials
Booknews
Bennett (minority literature and gay and lesbian studies, U. of Minnesota-Minneapolis) examines three interrelated themes: blacks passing as whites in narratives from antebellum works to the Harlem Renaissance; the parodies of minstrelsy and other forms of racial impersonation or mimicry through music, speech, and even plot; and the contemporary obsession with gender passing, particularly as it relates to issues of race and racial passing. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.Gerald Early
The Passing Figure: Racial Confusion in Modern American Literature is a first-rate effort in re-examining the Harlem Renaissance and 1920s America in a fresh way. This study connects discussions of popular culture, high-brow and popular literature, and constructions of race and ethnicity to provide new and valuable insights into the old dilemma of the American identity. The considerations of the various manifestations of 'Showboat' and 'The Jazz Singer' are especially fine. Yet The Passing Figure is more: a solid study of how the boundaries of race and gender in America are dramatized as both impenetrable yet fluid and fake.Book Details
Published
December 1, 1996
Publisher
New York : Peter Lang, c1996.
Pages
150
Format
Hardcover
ISBN
9780820431147