Layers of Experience: An Intersectional Approach to Nella Larsen’s Passing

Abstract

This paper addresses Nella Larsen’s Passing within an intersectional matrix of the entwined dynamics of race, gender, and class in early 20th-century America. The focus is on how the two protagonists, Irene Redfield and Clare Kendry, negotiate their complex identities in a racially stratified society. Using Kimberlé Crenshaw’s concepts of structural and political intersectionality, the study demonstrates how the experiences of these women intersect in particular configurations of identity formation within oppressive social structures characteristic of the Jim Crow period. The study also discusses psychological conflicts brought about by racial passing, looking at the tension between self-authenticity and social survival. In the following sections, this research delves into the socio-political meanings of passing and its psychological concomitance regarding motherhood, marriage, and social mobility. At the bottom line, passing is approached as a mode of critique of racial and gender homogenization, highlighting the complexity of black women’s experiences during the Harlem Renaissance