The Passing Figure: Racial Confusion in Modern American Literature |
The Passing Figure: Racial Confusion in Modern American Literature
Peter Lang
1998
142 pages
ISBN: 978-0-8204-4265-5
Juda Charles Bennett, Associate Professor of English
The College of New Jersey
How and when does literature most effectively uncover race to be a metaphor? The passing figure, a light-skinned African-American capable and willing to pass for white, provides the thematic focus to this provocative study. In exploring the social and cultural history of this distinctly American phenomenon, Bennett moves freely between literature, film, and music, arguing that the passing figure is crucial to our understanding of past and present conceptions of race.
Tags: Juda Bennett, Juda C. Bennett, Juda Charles Bennett, Peter Lang