Beschreibung
Passing Novels in the Harlem Renaissance offers an
insightful study of the significance of passing novels for
the literary and intellectual debate of the Harlem
Renaissance. Mar Gallego effectively uncovers the presence
of a subversive component in five of these novels (by James
Weldon Johnson, George Schuyler, Nella Larsen, and Jessie
Fauset), turning them into useful tools to explore the
passing phenomenon in all its richness and complexity. Her
compelling study intends to contribute to the ongoing
revision of the parameters conventionally employed to
analyze passing novels by drawing attention to a great
variety of textual strategies such as double consciousness,
parody, and multiple generic covers. Examining the hybrid
nature of these texts, Gallego skillfully highlights their
radical critique of the status quo and their celebration of
a distinct African American identity.
“ Passing Novels in the Harlem Renaissance is an
impressive work of scholarship and interpretation. It is
well researched and stimulating to read.“ Hanna Wallinger,
University of Salzburg
„Mar Gallego draws our renewed attention to the uses and
subversions of the trope of passing that have characterized
the African American novelistic tradition also in the
twentieth century.“ Giulia Fabi, University of Ferrara
„Mar Gallego’s thorough scholarship now provides us with a
new, in-depth and refreshing reading of texts we thought we
already knew something about. A provocative text and a
welcome addition to the field!“ Justine Tally, University
of La Laguna
Mar Gallego is Associate Professor of
American Studies at the University of Huelva (Spain) and her
research interests involve ethnic literatures in the US,
particularly African American Studies and the African
diaspora. She has published extensively in the field and has
co-edited Myth and Ritual in African American and
Native American Literatures (2001) and
Contemporary Views on the Vietnam Era: Focusing the Great
60’s (2002).
