2015/01/01 by Schalk · 9 citations
Arts and Humanities · #American and British Literature Analysis #Themes in Literature Analysis #American Literature and Culture #Eugenics #Ideology #Resistance (ecology) #Sociology #Political science #Biology #Law #Ecology #Politics
paper · doi:10.2979/jmodelite.38.3.148
published in Journal of Modern Literature 38(3), 148 (Indiana University Press)
openalex publication_date 2015/01/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/23
Nella Larsen’s Passing can be seen as a critique of early-twentieth-century eugenic ideology. Race, class, gender, and sexual binaries were mutually constituted in eugenic ideology and practices of the period and, therefore, cannot be separated or hierarchically ranked in any analysis of the character Clare Kendry. Clare challenges these identity binaries by attempting to not simply cross over them, but to live on both sides of them. The both/and nature of her actions and desires makes Clare a trans - figure, one who passes over, across, within and between categories, thereby defying and critiquing the eugenic ideological notion that identity categories are discrete, natural, and fixed.