Mixed Race Studies

Scholarly perspectives on the mixed race experience.

The most unique disadvantage of formal identities, relative to ascriptive and elective ones, is that they are confounded by dynamic identities: identities that change over time or depend on context. Formalities leave documentary traces that “inhibit forgetting.” The idea that a past formality might estop an individual from claiming a different identity is based on an understanding of identity as impervious to change or reformulation depending on context. But people do not always experience identity in this static and acontextual way. Researchers have found that many multiracial individuals change their racial identifications in different situations and over their lifetimes. For example, consider a multiracial woman who is only willing to identify as such if she believes her employer’s diversity program is genuine as opposed to tokenizing. The effects can be passed down through the generations, as one whose ancestors did not sign the Dawes Rolls may not have a claim to tribal membership. Or a person whose parents brought her to the United States without pursuing immigration formalities may find herself estopped from claiming U.S. citizenship. This estoppel problem is a growing risk as technology facilitates better collection and retention of records.

Jessica A. Clarke, “Identity and Form,” California Law Review, Volume 103, Number 4 (August 2015), 882. http://www.californialawreview.org/1identity_form/.

Romance and Race: Coloring the Past

Posted in Books, Literary/Artistic Criticism, Media Archive, Monographs, Passing on 2022-04-14 22:12Z by Steven

Romance and Race: Coloring the Past

ACMRS Press
April 2022
160 pages
6″ x 9″
Hardcover ISBN: 9780866986946
Paperback ISBN: 9780866986595

Margo Hendricks, Professor Emerita
University of California, Santa Cruz

This study brings race and the literary tradition of romance into dialogue.

Romance and Race: Coloring the Past explores the literary and cultural genealogy of colorism, white passing, and white presenting in the romance genre. The scope of the study ranges from Heliodorus’ Aithiopika to the short novels of Aphra Behn, to the modern romance novel Forbidden by Beverly Jenkins. This analysis engages with the troublesome racecraft of “passing” and the instability of racial identity and its formation from the premodern to the present. The study also looks at the significance of white settler colonialism to early modern romance narratives. A bridge between studies of early modern romance and scholarship on twenty-first-century romance novels, this book is well-suited for those interested in the romance genre.

Tags: ACMRS Press, Aphra Behn, Beverly Jenkins, colorism, Heliodorus, Heliodorus of Emesa, Margo Hendricks

Comments Off on Romance and Race: Coloring the Past

In Search of Something Akin to Freedom: Black Women, Slavery, and Power

Posted in Dissertations, Literary/Artistic Criticism, Media Archive, Women on 2012-08-15 02:06Z by Steven

In Search of Something Akin to Freedom: Black Women, Slavery, and Power

Florida State University
2007
78 pages

Katrina Songanett Smith

A Thesis submitted to the Department of English in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts

This thesis examines both historical and fictional representations of interracial relationships in the 18th century. My argument in this project is two-fold. First, I argue that some black women used sexual relationships with white men to gain advantages for themselves and their fellow slaves. Second, I argue that novelists of the time period re-wrote history in an attempt to erase the positive aspects of miscegenation.

Table of Contents

Abstract
Introduction
Chapter One: Historical Accounts of Black Women’s Sexuality and Strategies of Resistance: The Narratives of Mary Prince, Thomas Thistlewood, John Stedman, Maria Nugent, and Janet Schaw
Chapter Two: The Revenge of the Shrew: Aphra Behn’s Oroonoko
Chapter Three: The Sacrifice of the Colored Woman in J.W. Orderson’s Creoleana
Epilogue
Works Cited

Read the entire thesis here.

Tags: Aphra Behn, Florida State University, J.W. Orderson, Janet Schaw, John Stedman, Katrina S. Smith, Katrina Smith, Katrina Songanett Smith, Maria Nugent, Mary Prince, Thomas Thistlewood

Comments Off on In Search of Something Akin to Freedom: Black Women, Slavery, and Power

M	T	W	T	F	S	S
1	2	3	4	5	6	7
8	9	10	11	12	13	14
15	16	17	18	19	20	21
22	23	24	25	26	27	28
29	30

Mixed Race Studies

Romance and Race: Coloring the Past

In Search of Something Akin to Freedom: Black Women, Slavery, and Power

Pages

Categories

Calendar of Posts

Links

Meta