Tag: Amitava Kumar

  • Narratives of Passing Vassar College Poughkeepsie, New York 2015-? Amitava Kumar, Professor of English (Same as AFRS 253) Topic for 2019b: Narratives of Passing. The phrase “passing for white,” peculiar to American English, first appears in advertisements for the return of runaway slaves. Abolitionist fiction later adopts the phenomenon of racial passing (together with the…

  • On Being Brown in America The New York Times 2013-04-25 Amitava Kumar, Writer and Professor of English Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, New York The recent bombings in Boston threw up many questions. One of the most pressing, in my somewhat narrow view, is the meaning of being brown in America. On April 17, two days after…