Blurring Racial Dichotomy: A Study of Double Consciousness in Nella Larsen's Passing

Abstract

This thesis examines the idea of racial passing for African-Americans represented in Nella Larsen’s Passing. It analyses the inner psyche of African-American women in the light of the novel’s characters: Irene Redfield and Clare Kendry, who use the trope of passing to surpass the disabilities of being Negrore siding in white community. In the novel, Larsen’s protagonists share their different views regarding passing for white from two different perspectives. These two views reflect two different psyches of African-American people where one passed for white permanently and second prefers situational passing during the time of need only. They present the importance of passing for African-American in order to improve their status as being black in color and black as women. This research explores how the act of passing not only collapses the racial hierarchies but also presents race as a matter of social construction. Likewise, drawing on the concept of Double consciousness, Larsen displays the struggle of Blacks to remain visible beyond the suffocations of internalized oppression. Being inferior in the society, Blacks begins to view themselves through the prejudices lens of white dominant culture which forces them to uphold both racial identity as Black and White. This split in identity reinforces them to adopt both racial identities which blur the racial dichotomy created by so-called American racial ideology.