Blackmore, David L. "`That unreasonable restless feeling': The homosexual subtexts of Nella Larsen's Passing." African American Review 26.3 (1992): 475. Academic Search Premier. EBSCO. Web. 8 Feb. 2011.
“The Unreasonable Restless Feeling”: The homosexual subtexts of Nella Larsen’s Passing. This article explains how Passing has an idea of lesbians. Deborah McDowell is a critic who sees what most readers don’t; a desire between Irene and Clare. She backs this up by telling how it seems that from the beginning that Irene seems fascinated with Clare’s appearance. In the future, Clare surprises Irene with a kiss, which Irene is fascinated with. As the story goes on, Irene seems to be more infatuated with Clare when saying, She is "exquisite, golden, fragrant, flaunting,. . . her glistening hair drawn smoothly back into a small twist at the nape of her neck; her eyes sparkling like dark jewels.”
Clare surprises Irene in her bedroom which brings Irene to an instant attraction. Irene tells her that she should come to harlem because it was not safe and Clare got very irate with her in asking “you don’t want me Rene?” Irene had to back that up with saying no it’s just not safe because her true identity will reveal to all, when really she wanted her to come more than anything. Irene believes that her husband is homosexual as well. She believes that her husband wants to escape to Brazil because Brazil is accepting of Homosexuality.
I think this is a good journal because it brings to our attention something that most of do not notice about the novel. It makes a twist in the novel that can make it more exciting for some people.
Barnett, Pamela A. "`My picture of you is, after all, the true Helga Crane': Portraiture and identity in Nella.." Signs: Journal of Women in Culture & Society 20.3 (1995): 575. Academic Search Premier. EBSCO. Web. 6 Feb. 2011.
In the journal, “My Picture of You Is, After All, The True Helga Crane”: Portraiture and Identity in Nella Larsen’s Quicksand, there is a brief summarization of the novel. It explains the main points of the story and the hard times that Helga had to go through with finding her identity. Pamela E. Barnett explains how Larsen challenges her readers in Quicksand. She says that Larsen challenges her readers to separate Helga from her image as well from stereotypical assignation’s of the novel’s many observations, to move beyond the surfaces of Helga’s character. Also, the reader is challenged to focus attention on Helga as an individual, rather than a spectacle. Barnett explains that it is impossible to understand this task because until Helga reached Denmark, the narrator and Helga herself recognize the exoticization and objectification of black women’s sexuality. Helga has trouble with seeing herself the way she looks in her portraits.
The journal explains how Barnett sees the comparisons of Helga Crane and Nella Larsen. It explains how they dress and that they like “pretty things.” The story and Helga Crane are described in frames, very detailed with colors and shapes of objects. The author of this journal sees that Larsen explores setting before character is established and it creates distance between reader and character. This makes reader an observer from beginning of novel. The description of Helga Crane’s body is very sexually told which is like a portrait. Everything is separate from one another.
I believe this journal is good because it shows readers how to see the novel as a picture. Everything is detailed and separate from one another. Barnett tells us how to challenge ourselves in the novel and what all to look for. This could be used for an essay or paper easily because it gives us so much information on how to see the story in ways that many people do not.
Larson, Kelli A. "Surviving the Taint of Plagiarism: Nella Larsen's "Sanctuary" and Sheila Kaye-Smith's "Mrs. Adis.." Journal of Modern Literature 30.4 (2007): 82-104. Academic Search Premier. EBSCO. Web. 6 Feb. 2011.
The journal, Surviving the Taint of Plagiarism: Nella Larsen’s “Sanctuary” and Sheila Kaye-Smith’s “Mrs. Adis” by Kelli A. Larson from University of St. Thomas explained the similarities and differences of how the world thought Larsen plagiarized her short story. Kaye-Smith was a British writer who published her short story “Mrs. Adis” in 1922 in the issue of Century Magazine. Larsen published “Sanctuary” in 1930. Larsen said she got her plot of her story from an elderly black woman during her nursing career at Lincoln Hospital in New York City. She continued to write and submit work, but after being accused, she could never publish again.
Kaye-Smith’s career continued to rise even while writing for over 50 years at the time. Nella worked at a library at the time “Mrs. Adis” was published, so many thought she had to have read the story. Some thought that she didn’t plagiarize because why would Larsen have gotten work from Century Magazine, and then submit to another big time magazine called Forum. That would have been too idiotic and she was much too intelligent for that. Thadious Davis says he does not think that it is the same, Nella made it far different social and cultural experience.
Both stories started out in an isolated cottage. It then goes to a lonely man walking stealthily to hide from authorities. He enters a cottage without knocking and once inside, he confesses to an elderly woman who lives there. He shot an unidentified man during a theft and begs the older woman to hide him. She hesitates but he presumes upon his friendship with the woman’s son. She shelters him until his son returns from work. A knock later on reveals the law with bad news for the woman that her son has been shot during confrontation with thief. Authorities ask woman if she had seen the suspect and she denies it. She then tells sons killer to leave. Larsen’s story was about a black man that was angry and had no emotions, and was the other was a sad guy.
Good articles, too. I think Blackmore's argument could apply to Helga and the woman she lives with in Harlem, too -- sounds like a similar situation. The plagiarism one is interesting, too -- she basically ruined her career with that story, but many people have said that the story was a common sort of "folk tale" that did circulate among oppressed groups -- whether or not you choose to identify more with your race than your family. The situation of the man who comes to the older woman's house in "Sanctuary" is much more serious under Jim Crow laws than in the British story.
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