Nella Larsen

Clare Kendry has severed all ties to her past. Elegant, fair-skinned and ambitious, she is married to a white man who is unaware of her African-American heritage. When she renews her acquaintance with her childhood friend Irene, who has not hidden her origins, both women are forced to reassess their marriages, the lies they have told - and to confront the secret fears they have buried within themselves. Nella Larsen's intense, taut and psychologically nuanced portrayal of lives and identities dangerously colliding established her as a leading writer of America's Harlem Renaissance. The Penguin English Library - collectable general readers' editions of the best fiction in English, from the eighteenth century to the end of the Second World War.

Penguin Classics

Passing

Quicksand

A NETFLIX BOOK CLUB PICK Nella Larsen's powerful, thrilling, and tragic tale about the fluidity of racial identity that continues to resonate today. A New York Times Editors’ Choice. Now a major motion picture starring Tessa Thompson and Alexander Skarsgård Clare Kendry is living on the edge. Light-skinned, elegant, and ambitious, she is married to a racist white man unaware of her African American heritage, and has severed all ties to her past after deciding to “pass” as a white woman. Clare’s childhood friend, Irene Redfield, just as light-skinned, has chosen to remain within the African American community, and is simultaneously allured and repelled by Clare’s risky decision to engage in racial masquerade for personal and societal gain. After frequenting African American-centric gatherings together in Harlem, Clare’s interest in Irene turns into a homoerotic longing for Irene’s black identity that she abandoned and can never embrace again, and she is forced to grapple with her decision to pass for white in a way that is both tragic and telling. This edition features a new introduction by Emily Bernard and notes by Thadious M. Davis. For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.

General Press

Generally regarded as Nella Larsen's best work, Passing was first published in 1929 but has received a lot of renewed attention because of its close examination of racial and sexual ambiguities. It has achieved canonical status in many American universities. Clare Kendry is living on the edge. Light-skinned, elegant, and ambitious, she is married to a racist white man unaware of her African American heritage, and has severed all ties to her past after deciding to ‘pass’ as a white woman. Clare’s childhood friend, Irene Redfield, just as light-skinned, has chosen to remain within the African American community, and is simultaneously allured and repelled by Clare’s risky decision to engage in racial masquerade for personal and societal gain. After frequenting African American-centric gatherings together in Harlem, Clare's interest in Irene turns into a homoerotic longing for Irene's black identity that she abandoned and can never embrace again, and she is forced to grapple with her decision to pass for white in a way that is both tragic and telling.

زنج

Nella Larsen was an important writer associated with the Harlem Renaissance. While she was not prolific her work was powerful and critically acclaimed. Collected here are all three of her published short stories; "Freedom," "The Wrong Man," and "Sanctuary." These stories are about love, loss, mistaken identity, and death.

The Short Fiction of Nella Larsen

Gathers three stories and two novels by Larsen, an influential writer of the Harlem Renaissance, and briefly describes her background.

The Complete Fiction of Nella Larsen

NOW A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE STARRING TESSA THOMPSON AND RUTH NEGGA Two women in 1920s New York discover how fluid and dangerous our perceptions of race can be in this electrifying classic of the Harlem Renaissance—with an introduction by Kaitlyn Greenidge, author of We Love You, Charlie Freeman, finalist for the Center for Fiction First Novel Prize “The genius of this book is that its protagonists . . . are complex and fully realized. . . . The work of a highly talented and thoughtful writer.”—Richard Bernstein, The New York Times Irene Redfield is living an affluent, enviable life with her husband and children in the thriving African American enclave of Harlem in the 1920s. That is, until she runs into her childhood friend, Clare Kendry. Since they last saw each other, Clare, who is similarly light-skinned, has been “passing” for a white woman, married to a racist man who does not know about his wife’s real identity, which she has chosen to hide from the rest of the world. Irene is both fascinated and repulsed by Clare’s dangerous secret, and in turn, Clare yearns for Irene’s sense of ease and security with her Black identity and community, which Clare gave up in pursuit of a more advantageous life, and which she can never embrace again. As the two women grow close, Clare begins to insert herself and her deception into every part of Irene’s stable existence, and their complex reunion sets off a chain of events that dynamically alters both women forever. In this psychologically gripping and chilling novel, Nella Larsen explores the blurriness of race, sacrifice, alienation, and desire that defined her own experience as a woman of mixed race, issues that still powerfully resonate today. Ultimately, Larsen forces us to consider whether we can ever truly choose who we are. The Modern Library Torchbearers series features women who wrote on their own terms, with boldness, creativity, and a spirit of resistance.

Due donne. Passing

Generally regarded as Nella Larsen's best work, Passing was first published in 1929 but has received a lot of renewed attention because of its close examination of racial and sexual ambiguities. It has achieved canonical status in many American universities. Clare Kendry is living on the edge. Light-skinned, elegant, and ambitious, she is married to a racist white man unaware of her African American heritage, and has severed all ties to her past after deciding to 'pass' as a white woman. Clare's childhood friend, Irene Redfield, just as light-skinned, has chosen to remain within the African American community, and is simultaneously allured and repelled by Clare's risky decision to engage in racial masquerade for personal and societal gain. After frequenting African American-centric gatherings together in Harlem, Clare's interest in Irene turns into a homoerotic longing for Irene's black identity that she abandoned and can never embrace again, and she is forced to grapple with her decision to pass for white in a way that is both tragic and telling. About the Author: Nella Larsen (1891-1964) was the author of two novels and several short stories. She received a Guggenheim fellowship to write a third novel in 1930 but, unable to find a publisher for it, she disappeared from the literary scene and worked as a nurse.

Passing, Quicksand, and the Stories

Complete Fiction of Nella Larsen

Two light-skinned African American women, friends since childhood, have chosen to embrace their identities and live their lives in completely different ways.

Clare and Irene were two childhood friends. They lost touch when Clare's father died and she moved in with two white aunts. By hiding that Clare was part-black, they allowed her to 'pass' as a white woman and marry a white racist. Irene lives in Harlem, commits herself to racial uplift, and marries a black doctor. The novel centers on the meeting of the two childhood friends later in life, and the unfolding of events as each woman is fascinated and seduced by the other's daring lifestyle.

Santuário

Prefácio de Ryane Leão. Irene Redfield e Clare Kendry têm algo em comum: ambas são mulheres negras de pele clara que podem se passar por brancas. Essa, porém, é a única similaridade entre elas. Após perderem contato durante a adolescência,as duas se reencontram por acaso em uma cafeteria de um hotel em Chicago. Um encontro que muda para sempre a dinâmica entre as duas mulheres, suas famílias e suas comunidades. Irene parece ter tudo que poderia desejar. Casada com Brian, um médico proeminente, eles são donos de uma confortável casa no Harlem, onde criam seus dois filhos. O trabalho de organizar bailes de caridade em que celebra toda a riqueza da cultura afro-americana dá a Irene um propósito e um senso de responsabilidade. Sua única preocupação é o desejo insistente do marido em se mudar para o Brasil, um país onde, segundo ele, não há racismo. Clare Kendry, por outro lado, vive no limite. Após perder o pai aos 14 anos, saiu da vizinhança negra em que vivia para ir morar com as tias e começou a se passar por branca, mantendo sua verdadeira ancestralidade miscigenada em segredo para todos, principalmente para o homem racista com quem se casou. No entanto, após o reencontro e à medida que começa a se envolver cada vez mais na vida de Irene, Clare vê a energia da comunidade que deixou para trás, e sua vontade ardente de retornar a ela ameaça a farsa cuidadosa que é sua vida. Obra atemporal e clássico literário, Identidade oferece um vívido retrato da sociedade americana nos anos 1920 e discute não apenas a questão de raça, mas também de classe e gênero. Através de uma brilhante narrativa e de personagens complexos, Nella Larsen prova que ser leal às próprias origens não é apenas um ato de orgulho, mas também de coragem.

Identidade

«"Claroscuro" es una obra digna de Henry James por su meticulosidad [...], un relato sagaz en su concepción y exquisito en su factura, que, además de plantear los problemas relacionados con la identidad racial en el ambiente de clase media, media-alta negra de Harlem y Chicago en 1927, recreado aquí con enorme realismo, trata de la furia asesina que puede provocar en una mujer el hecho de verse sobrepasada por otra.» Joyce Carol Oates "Claroscuro", un soberbio drama sobre la identidad y el deseo traducido por primera vez al castellano, narra la relación de amistad entre dos mujeres de color en la Nueva York de los años veinte. Irene Redfield se reencuentra por casualidad con una amiga de la infancia, Clare Kendry, quien comparte con ella el hecho de que, a pesar de ser negra, su piel es lo sufi cientemente clara para que pueda pasar por blanca. Irene ha permanecido en la comunidad negra y está casada con un médico afroamericano. Claire, sin embargo, se hace pasar por blanca y está casada con un blanco que goza de una desahogada posición económica y desprecia a la gente de color. El casual encuentro hace que, a pesar de la reticencia inicial de Irene, retomen su amistad, amistad que le permitirá a Clare cumplir su deseo de reencontrarse con los de su raza. Nella Larsen, la autora de "Claroscuro", introdujo a García Lorca en los círculos de los negros de Harlem, donde el poeta halló inspiración para escribir su "Poeta en Nueva York".

Claroscuro

Nella Larsen was a major Harlem Renaissance author. Despite her lack of output, her art was powerful and well-received. This collection contains both of her novels, "Passing" and "Quicksand," as well as all three of her published short stories, "Freedom," "The Wrong Man," and "Sanctuary." "Quicksand" was an autobiographical film about a woman's need for sexual fulfilment in the setting of respectability and acceptance in a religious society. The novel is bleak, and it ends with the protagonist being drawn into a life that is the polar opposite of all she desired. "Passing" confronts the issue of racial passing. Clare and Irene, two childhood friends who are both fair-skinned enough to pass for white, are the focus of the story.

The Complete Fiction of Nella Larsen: Passing, Quicksand, and The Stories

Nella Larsen was an important writer associated with the Harlem Renaissance. While she was not prolific her work was powerful and critically acclaimed. Collected here are both of her novels, 'Passing' and 'Quicksand'. 'Passing' confronts the reality of racial passing. The novel focuses on two childhood friends Clare and Irene, both of whom are light-skinned enough to pass as white, who have reconnected with one another after many years apart. Clare has chosen to pass while Irene has embraced her racial heritage and become an important member of her community. The novel examines how people pass on many different levels and in many different ways. Some forms of passing are perfectly acceptable while others can lead to disaster. 'Quicksand', was autobiographical in nature and examined a woman's need for sexual fulfilment balanced against respectability and acceptance amid a deeply religious society. The novel is deeply pessimistic and ends as the protagonist is sucked into a life that is at odds with all that she had desired.

Nella Larsen

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