Identification Of Women Mulatto In Nella Larsen’s Passing

As a first African American woman awarded Guggenheim Foundation creativescholarship, Nella Larsen is an important figure in Harlem Renaissance and arepresentative writer of passing novels. Quicksand and Passing are both passing novelsthemed with mulatto with white skin color to cross the color line to be “white”. Manyliterary critics neglect or criticize Passing for a long time, while this thesis tries toreview it with a positive and admiring angle.The identification issue is the everlasting theme in the field of American cultureand literature, while the identification of mulattos in this text is even more ambivalentand complicated. With double racial heritage and culture tradition, they are categorizedas the inferior black by “One-drop” policy, and due to the racial discrimination andpersecution, they pass to be white to enjoy the privileges along with their new identity.However, their passing actions are harshly accused of racial betrayal. The mulattos losttheir identities when caught in-between. In light of Said’s “Other” theory and HomiBhabha’s concept of “Hybridity”, this thesis analyzes that, being marginalized as theOther, light-skinned women mulattos transgress the racial, gender and class boundariesthrough the trope of passing, and then construct a hybrid identity and realize theiridentification at last. In this manner, this thesis illustrates a point that the truth ofidentification of women mulattos is to construct a hybrid identity that can avoidconfinement, discrimination and oppression upon women mulattos, so they can survive better in the complex American society. It brings out a theoretical guidance for mulattosin reality to search their identity in American society and a fresh angle to study NellaLarsen’s Passing.This thesis is composed of three chapters, and the first Chapter mainly analyzesthe reason of passing is women mulattos’ otherness in the white dominated andpatriarchy world. In Chapter Two, the author analyzes the significance of passing: theaction of passing demonstrates the paradox between race and color and bitterly satirizesthe race system based on the skin color or blood-tell theory; and it criticizes theshortcomings of the racial discourse hailed in Harlem Renaissance; and then itdestabilizes the gender domination and class hierarchy established upon the racialdiscourse. Chapter Three mainly deals with the realization of women mulatto’sidentification; women mulattos like Clare can construct a hybrid identity in Americansociety upon the disillusion of race, gender and class categorization, Irene and otherswith a fixed identity are wound up with self-destruction.