{"id":23304,"date":"2012-05-22T17:06:20","date_gmt":"2012-05-22T17:06:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mixedracestudies.org\/wordpress\/?p=23304"},"modified":"2017-03-07T17:29:18","modified_gmt":"2017-03-07T17:29:18","slug":"identity-formation-in-biracial-female-authors%e2%80%99-narratives-of-passing-transgressing-racial-and-sexual-boundaries-in-nella-larsen%e2%80%99s-passing-and-danzy-senna%e2%80%99s-caucasia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/?p=23304","title":{"rendered":"Identity Formation in Biracial Female Authors\u2019 Narratives of Passing: Transgressing Racial and Sexual Boundaries in Nella Larsen\u2019s Passing and Danzy Senna\u2019s Caucasia"},"content":{"rendered":"

Identity Formation in Biracial Female Authors\u2019 Narratives of Passing: Transgressing Racial and Sexual Boundaries in Nella Larsen\u2019s Passing and Danzy Senna\u2019s Caucasia<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
\nSeptember 2008
\n150 pages<\/p>\n

Stamatia Koutsimani<\/strong><\/p>\n

A Dissertation submitted to the Department of American Literature and Culture, School of English, Faculty of Philosophy of Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts.<\/em><\/p>\n

The complex presence of the mulatta<\/a> figure in American cultural history is mostly reflected in twentieth-century narratives of passing<\/a> where the light-skinned enough to pass Negress becomes a vehicle for challenging both the color line and the very notions of blackness and whiteness. Contrary to nineteenth-century whites\u2019 stereotypical representations of the \u201ctragic mulatta<\/a>\u201d as a victim of her divided racial heritage, the use of the passing mulatta by twentieth-century biracial female authors has served to criticize racial as well as gender essentialisms. In this respect, this thesis will focus on Nella Larsen\u2019s<\/a> Passing<\/a><\/em>, published in 1929 and Danzy Senna\u2019s<\/a> Caucasia<\/a><\/em>, published in 1998, trying to show how the changing representation of the passing mulatta characters reflects the gradual reversal of the tragic mulatta myth and reveals the interconnections among race, gender, class and sexuality in different sociopolitical contexts. By examining the authors\u2019 use of the passing mulatta as a trope through which to question the dominant political and racial ideology of their time, the thesis will attempt to explain how the biracial female characters\u2019 transgression of racial and gender boundaries contributes to the understanding of identity as constructed and performed. More specifically, the reading of Passing<\/em> and Caucasia<\/em> will be based on Judith Butler\u2019s<\/a> concept of gender performativity and Catherine Rottenberg\u2019s<\/a> theoretical discussion of race performativity. In addition, Kimberl\u00e9 Crenshaw\u2019s<\/a> theory of intersectionality, which is central to Valerie Smith\u2019s<\/a> notion of black feminism, will play a major role in the analysis of the two works.<\/p>\n

Based on a comparative analysis of the novels, the thesis will draw attention to the central mulatta characters\u2019 search for racial and gender identities, with a view to tracing potential changes in the authors\u2019 employment of the passing theme in the increasingly multicultural US racial context. Moreover, by highlighting the passing novels\u2019 difference from stereotypical depictions of mulatta figures, the thesis aims at responding to questions regarding racial dualism and ongoing debates over mixed race identity. On the whole, it will reveal that the biracial female authors\u2019 representations of the permeable borders between identity categories serve to challenge dominant cultural understandings of racial and gender differences which have long contributed to the mulatta figure\u2019s liminal status in American society.<\/p>\n

Read the entire thesis here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A Dissertation submitted to the Department of American Literature and Culture, School of English, Faculty of Philosophy of Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[838,28,1196,8,6462,20],"tags":[10857,1340,10859,87,10858],"class_list":["post-23304","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-dissertations","category-europe","category-literary-criticism","category-media-archive","category-passing-2","category-usa","tag-aristotle-university-of-thessaloniki","tag-danzy-senna","tag-greece","tag-nella-larsen","tag-stamatia-koutsimani"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23304","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=23304"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23304\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":52176,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23304\/revisions\/52176"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=23304"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=23304"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=23304"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}