Introduction: Chapter 1, Introduction: Negro Announces. Remarkable Discovery. Can Change Black To White in Three Days. (Schuyler: p.9). This quote from George S. Schuyler’s short story Black No More advertises the benefit of a remarkable discovery’ that empowers black people to free themselves from the resentments of racial separation and all the disadvantages that come with a life as a person of a dark skin color during the time of the separate-but-equal Jim Crow laws in the US. Although this remarkable discovery’ has yet only been invented in fictional literature, albeit rumors about Michael Jackson’s skin bleaching therapy will supposedly never stop, it can be speculated that it would have had a breakthrough commercial success among the black community as generations of African Americans have suffered and are still suffering from discrimination and racism in the US, even now that the President is of African descent. For that reason passing’ narratives are part of a genre that is continuously popular in American literature and popular culture. Starting from the early slave narratives with the likes of Running a Thousand Miles for Freedom in 1860, which even includes a cross-dressing, thus gender-passing’ story to Philip Roth’s The Human Stain in 2000, or TV series such as Gangster Rapper Ice Cube’s reality show Black.White. in 2006, passing’ stories have always caught the attention of a wide audience. This is, of course due to the fact that a passing’ novel usually includes a lot of the ingredients that make up for an exciting read as the passing’ protagonist is willing to give up everything, leave his family and friends behind to pursue his individual happiness and freedom, thus making the passing’ character a symbol of American individualism looking for what is the most popular myth about The Land of the Free’: the American Dream. The focus in this paper though is not on individualism or the pursuit of the American Dream but on the constructions of race in two selected novels, Passing by Nella Larsen and The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man by James Weldon Johnson. The essential assumption for this central question is, of course, that race as a category of human classification, evaluation and grading is constructed and is by no means a biological fact that literally only knows black or white with the vague mulatto as the in-between. [...]

From the music of Louis Armstrong to the portraits by Beauford Delaney, the writings of Langston Hughes to the debut of the musical Show Boat, the Harlem Renaissance is one of the most significant developments in African-American history in the twentieth century. The Encyclopedia of the Harlem Renaissance, in two-volumes and over 635 entries, is the first comprehensive compilation of information on all aspects of this creative, dynamic period. For a full list of entries, contributors, and more, visit the Encyclopedia of Harlem Renaissance website.

A perfect guide for use in high school classes, this book explores the fascinating literature of the Harlem Renaissance, reviewing classic works in the context of the history, society, and culture of its time. The Harlem Renaissance is one of the most interesting eras in African American literature as well as a highly regarded period in our country's literary history. The works produced during this span reflect a turbulent social climate in America ... a time fraught with both opportunities and injustices for minorities. In this enlightening guide, author and educator Lynn Domina examines the literature of the Harlem Renaissance along with the cultural and societal factors influencing its writers. This compelling book illuminates the cultural conditions affecting the lives of African Americans everywhere, addressing topics such as prohibition, race riots, racism, interracial marriage, sharecropping, and lynching. Each chapter includes historical background on both the literary work and the author and explores several themes through historical document excerpts and thoughtful analysis to illustrate how literature responded to the surrounding social circumstances. Chapters conclude with a discussion of why and how the literary work remains relevant today.

Alphabetically arranged entries offer a comprehensive overview of the definitions, politics, manifestations, concepts, and ideas related to identity.

Pfeiffer studies the fiction of William Dean Howells, Frances E.W. Harper, Jean Toomer, James Weldon Johnson, Jessie Fauset, and Nella Larsen. She supports the ambiguous theory that the African-American characters found in these six authors' works are reinventing themselves by passing as white.

The Bloomsbury Handbook to Philip Roth provides a comprehensive, must-have survey of interdisciplinary scholarship on one of the major American novelists of the 20th and 21st centuries. The Bloomsbury Handbook to Philip Roth presents state-of-the-art scholarship on new research methods, current debates, and future directions in Philip Roth studies. It illuminates how Roth, one of the most influential American writers of the 20th and 21st centuries, not only reflected American history and culture in his important novels but uncannily anticipated our American future. Divided into six main sections, this Handbook considers such topics: - The full range of Roth's writing, from his novels and short stories to essays and life writing - Major interdisciplinary scholarly perspectives across literary studies, politics, gender studies, critical race theory, and ecocriticism - Roth's literary legacy across contemporary fiction, Jewish literature, the arts, and culture studies - Key contexts including American political movements since the 1950s, the American Jewish experience, and intertextual relationships Uniting scholars and artists who have built the field of Philip Roth studies from the ground up along with emergent scholars from around the world, this Handbook includes chapter summaries, study questions, and an author biography and timeline that includes key dates in Roth's life and publication history. It also contains a bibliography of secondary sources for further reading as well as an overview of film and television adaptations.

In the decades following World War II, many American Jews sought to downplay their difference, as a means of assimilating into Middle America. Yet a significant minority, including many prominent Jewish writers and intellectuals, clung to their ethnic difference, using it to register dissent with the status quo and act as spokespeople for non-white America. In this provocative book, Jennifer Glaser examines how racial ventriloquism became a hallmark of Jewish-American fiction, as Jewish writers asserted that their own ethnicity enabled them to speak for other minorities. Rather than simply condemning this racial ventriloquism as a form of cultural appropriation or commending it as an act of empathic imagination, Borrowed Voices offers a nuanced analysis of the technique, judiciously assessing both its limitations and its potential benefits. Glaser considers how the practice of racial ventriloquism has changed over time, examining the books of many well-known writers, including Bernard Malamud, Cynthia Ozick, Philip Roth, Michael Chabon, Saul Bellow, and many others. Bringing Jewish studies into conversation with critical race theory, Glaser also opens up a dialogue between Jewish-American literature and other forms of media, including films, magazines, and graphic novels. Moreover, she demonstrates how Jewish-American fiction can help us understand the larger anxieties about ethnic identity, authenticity, and authorial voice that emerged in the wake of the civil rights movement.