Ebook: Passing : Authoritative Text, Backgrounds and Contexts, Criticism.

"This remarkably comprehensive critical edition does the field a great favor by
bringing together in a single volume the full texts of iNella Larsen's thoroughly
modernist novel, Passing, and a wealth of contextual materials: contemporary
reviews from W. E. B. Du Bois, among others; correspondence, including
letters to the likes of Langston Hughes and Carl Van Vechten; biographical
and social commentaries, as well as a full complement of the critical
responses the novel has generated over the past twenty-five years.
"
—Ann duCille, Wesleyan University
Nella Larsen (1891-1964) occupies a central place in African-American
and Modernist literature, and her status as a Harlem Renaissance woman
writer is rivaled only by Zora Neale Hurstons. This Norton Critical Edition
of Larsen's electrifying 1929 novel is accompanied by Carla Kaplan's
insightfully detailed introduction, explanatory' annotations, and a Note on
the Text.
"Backgrounds and Contexts" connects Passing to the historical events
of the day. most notably the sensational Rhinelander/Jones case of 1925.
Fourteen contemporary' reviews are reprinted, including those by Alice
Dunbar-Nelson, W. B. Seabrook, Mary Griffin, andW. E. B. Du Bois. Little-
known documents, including those by Juanita Ellsworth and Caleb
Johnson, reveal America's fascination with—and fear of—the cultural
phenomenon of passing. Also included are Larsen's statements on the
novel and on passing, as well as a generous selection of her letters. The
theme of "The Tragic Mulatto(a)" in American literature is explored
through related writings by Lydia Maria Child, William Wells Brown,
Kate Chopin, Mark Twain, Countee Cullen, and Langston Hughes,
among others. Finally, Joseph Seamon Cotter. Jr., Jessie Redmon Fauset,
Countee Cullen, W. E. B. Du Bois, Allen Semi [Nella Larsen], George S.
Schuyler, Carl Van Vechten, and Langston Hughes voice their impressions
of passing from the perspective of the Harlem Renaissance.
"Criticism" provides sixteen diverse interpretations o{ Passing by, among
others, Deborah E. McDowell, Judith Butler, Cheryl A. Wall, Thadious
M. Davis, George Hutchinson, Mar)' Helen Washington, Ann duCille,
Gayle Wald, Claudia Tate, and Jennifer DeVere Brody.
A Chronology and Selected Bibliographv are also included.