{"product_id":"passing-a-norton-critical-edition-9780393979169","title":"Passing: A Norton Critical Edition","description":"\u003ch2\u003ePassing: A Norton Critical Edition by Nella Larsen\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\nThis Norton Critical Edition presents Nella Larsen's electrifying 1929 novel \u003cem\u003ePassing\u003c\/em\u003e, a cornerstone of Harlem Renaissance literature. Larsen's status as a Harlem Renaissance woman writer was rivaled only by Zora Neale Hurston, and this comprehensive edition provides readers with essential scholarly apparatus to fully appreciate this groundbreaking work.\n\n\u003ch2\u003eComplete Scholarly Apparatus\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\nEdited by Carla Kaplan, Davis Distinguished Professor of American Literature at Northeastern University, this critical edition features a detailed and thought-provoking introduction, thorough explanatory annotations throughout the text, and a Note on the Text that establishes the editorial approach.\n\n\u003ch2\u003eHistorical Context and Background\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\nThe \"Background and Contexts\" section connects Larsen's novel to the historical events of the 1920s, most notably the sensational Rhinelander\/Jones case of 1925. This landmark legal case involving racial identity and marriage provides crucial context for understanding the novel's exploration of passing. Published accounts from 1911 to 1935 by Langston Hughes, Juanita Ellsworth, and Caleb Johnson offer a nuanced view of the contemporary cultural dimensions of race and passing in America and abroad.\n\n\u003ch2\u003eContemporary Reception and Reviews\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\nFourteen contemporary reviews are reprinted, including critical assessments by Alice Dunbar-Nelson, Mary Griffin, and W. E. B. Du Bois. These reviews document how Larsen's work was received during the Harlem Renaissance and provide insight into the novel's immediate cultural impact.\n\n\u003ch2\u003eAuthor's Own Writings\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\nThis edition includes Larsen's statements on the novel and on passing, along with a generous selection of her letters and her central writings on \"The Tragic Mulatto(a)\" in American literature. Related Harlem Renaissance works provide additional perspective on the literary movement that shaped Larsen's writing.\n\n\u003ch2\u003eCritical Interpretations\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\nThe \"Criticism\" section provides fifteen diverse critical interpretations from leading scholars, including Mary Helen Washington, Cheryl A. Wall, Deborah E. McDowell, David L. Blackmore, Kate Baldwin, and Catherine Rottenberg. These essays represent multiple critical approaches and theoretical frameworks for analyzing the novel.\n\n\u003ch2\u003eAdditional Resources\u003c\/h2\u003e\n\nA Chronology places Larsen's life and work within historical context, while the Selected Bibliography guides readers to further scholarship on Larsen, the Harlem Renaissance, and racial passing in American literature and culture.\n\n\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e\u003ci\u003eKaplan, Carla:\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e - \u003cstrong\u003eCarla Kaplan\u003c\/strong\u003e is the Davis Distinguished Professor of American Literature at Northeastern University. She is the author of \u003cem\u003eThe Erotics of Talk: Women's Writing and Feminist Paradigms\u003c\/em\u003e, \u003cem\u003eZora Neale Hurston: A Life in Letters\u003c\/em\u003e, and \u003cem\u003eMiss Anne in Harlem: The White Women of the Black Renaissance\u003c\/em\u003e (forthcoming). She is also editor of \u003cem\u003eEvery Tongue Got to Confess: Negro Folk Tales from the Gulf States\u003c\/em\u003e and \u003cem\u003eDark Symphony and Other Works by Elizabeth Laura Adams\u003c\/em\u003e.","brand":"W. W. Norton \u0026 Company","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50680587387154,"sku":"9780393979169","price":25.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_8d857b31-b4a3-4521-9b49-4635388ba2e8.jpg?v=1751121278","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/passing-a-norton-critical-edition-9780393979169","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}