UPDATE November 2021:
Nella Larsen’s novel Passing is now in movie form on Netflix.
Use the conversations featured below as a watching/reading companion to the movie and/or novel.
[Original Posted in March, 2020]
Have you ever wondered about how you became you? How do we negotiate our intersectional identities? Bryce Coefield (formerly of George Fox University) and I explore these questions through Nella Larsen’s Passing, a classic novel of the Harlem Renaissance (and now a movie on Netflix).
This two part conversation (see the 2 videos below) considers the historical and sociological forces that create race as a category and then delves into how the women in Passing negotiate these identities. If you haven’t read the novel, Wikipedia has a helpful overview. But if you’re in my HUMA 205: Philosophy and Literature class (“Ethics at the Margins”)… go read the book!
I’m asking my students to reflect on the following question: how did Passing and these conversations make you think differently about your own intersectional identities?
Feel free to share your own thoughts via the comments section below, even if you’re not in the class.
grace & peace,
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