Title: Tracing the Aspects of Beauty, Segregation, and Racial Identity in Quicksand and Passing Novels by Nella Larsen
Mutaz Tarik Shakir
Diyala University –Al-Muqdad College of Education
DOI: https://doi.org/10.25130/jls.5.1.17
Keywords: Quicksand, Passing, Beauty, Segregation, Racial Identity, Sectarianism
Abstract
In this research work, Nella Larsen's two novels Quicksand and Passing explores the structures of the African American female identity. It investigate the textual depictions of Beauty, segregation and racial identity, and how these demonstrations are based in Harlem Renaissance literature and the broader literary canon on the stereotypes of the American women's identity. This study also demonstrated how both texts novels defy stereotypes of African American women by portraying women capable of liberty while condemning a culture that deprives them of their freedom and identities. Talking about race still causes discomfort, especially when trying to demonstrate how strategies for maintaining whiteness work as a hierarchical process, and that is why it is necessary that identities become key elements to open this path that is sometimes so tortuous and thorny. Passing exemplifies that the very notion of Whiteness must be questioned in order to illustrate that the debate about identities must not be dissociated from the question of race. Quicksand explores modern modes in which African American women represent identity by struggling to find their place in society in Larsen's first novel. Both novels challenge stereotypes of African-American women by depicting independent women and criticizing a culture that denies them agency and identity. This work portray protagonists and how fights against racial stereotypes, despite the difficulties they faced. For characters in Passing, beauty is very important, whom Larsen portrays as constantly assessing the physical appearances of other people, taking care of their own and worrying about how they appear. Also examines how Larsen employs mirrors, an unreliable speaker and unclear states to comment on the inefficient and dangerous effects on American society of segregation and assimilation. Her use of a distrusted, yet loyal-race heroine has revealed the traps in enabling the division between racial and social duties of a complete civilization.
