Nella Larsen

PASAR

The overlooked American writer who blows apart modern thinking on race TelegraphBorn to a Danish mother and a West Indian father Helga Crane has long had to fend for herself as a mixed race woman in the Deep South of 1920 s America She moves to Harlem and then to Copenhagen in her search for a sense of belonging and acceptance but wherever she goes she cannot escape the perceptions and prejudices of others One of the finest works of the Harlem Renaissance Nella Larsen s semi autobiographical first novel is a powerful portrayal of one woman s fractured inner life

Arenas movedizas está inspirada en la propia vida de la autora. Nella Larsen crea un peculiar personaje, una mujer complicada y llena de matices que se niega a sentirse víctima del desarraigo y la discriminacion racial. Helga Crane, una joven afroamericana, condenada a una vida llena de insatisfaccion, que lucha por conseguir la felicidad e integrarse en la sociedad, sea cual sea esta. Una mujer mestiza, de madre danesa y padre afroamericano, incapaz de sentirse comoda en la comunidad afroamericana de Estados Unidos, decide emprender un viaje a Dinamarca en busca de personas entre las que se sienta integrada. Se enfrenta a la hipocresia y los prejuicios de la sociedad, y su afan por adaptarse a las diversas comunidades raciales nunca tiene exito.

Neste marco do colorismo, com fortes tintas autobiográficas, Helga Crane é filha de pai negro e mãe branca e, portanto, não tem lugar nos Estados Unidos racista dos anos 1920. Conhecemos Helga em uma

Library of America presents one of the masterworks of the Harlem Renaissance, the tragic story of a young woman caught between worlds.Quicksand (1928) turns the techniques of literary naturalism on questions of race, gender, and class, with unforgettable results. Nella Larsens immensely stylish debut novel tells the story of sensitive, proud, and beautiful Helga Crane, the daughter (like Larsen herself) of a black West Indian father and a white Danish mother. She has what some would consider a promising career in the South, teaching at the finest school for Negroes anywhere in the country, and a respectable fiance. But she refuses to settle for the loveless future she envisions, hemmed in by petty conformities and the realities of southern racism, black as well as whiteand so she sets off in search a happier life, a journey recounted with great feeling and psychological precision in Quicksand. In Chicago, white in-laws disown Helga. Other relatives, in Copenhagen, fete her as a gorgeous exotic, and arrange a relationship with a famous Danish artist, but fail to see her as anything other than a marriageable commodity. Only in cosmopolitan New York, encountering what Larsen describes as the continuously gorgeous panorama of Harlem, does she begin to sense that she may have found a place where she might belong. But hers is a fate full of ambivalence, in which even the faith and family to which she turns are forms of entrapment.

Clare Kendry has severed all ties to her past. Elegant, fair-skinned and ambitious, she is married to a white man who is unaware of her African-American heritage. When she renews her acquaintance with her childhood friend Irene, who has not hidden her origins, both women are forced to reassess their marriages, the lies they have told - and to confront the secret fears they have buried within themselves. Nella Larsen''s intense, taut and psychologically nuanced portrayal of lives and identities dangerously colliding established her as a leading writer of America''s Harlem Renaissance.The Penguin English Library - collectable general readers'' editions of the best fiction in English, from the eighteenth century to the end of the Second World War.

Nella Larsen was an important writer associated with the Harlem Renaissance. While she was not prolific her work was powerful and critically acclaimed. Collected here are both of her novels, Passing and Quicksand. Quicksand, was autobiographical in nature and examined a womans need for sexual fulfilment balanced against respectability and acceptance amid a deeply religious society. The novel is deeply pessimistic and ends as the protagonist is sucked into a life that is at odds with all that she had desired. Passing confronts the reality of racial passing. The novel focuses on two childhood friends Clare and Irene, both of whom are light-skinned enough to pass as white, who have reconnected with one another after many years apart. Clare has chosen to pass while Irene has embraced her racial heritage and become an important member of her community. The novel examines how people pass on many different levels and in many different ways. Some forms of passing are perfectly acceptable while others can lead to disaster.

Clare e Irene se reencontraram, por acaso, no terraço de um elegante hotel. Na Chicago dos anos 1920, elas nem poderiam, pela lei, estar ali: so negras que, por conta da pele clara, estavam passando-se por brancas. Irene, e verdade, manteve-se na raça: mora no Harlem e e membro ativo da Sociedade Negra. Ja Clare, para deixar a pobreza, adotou uma identidade de branca e casou-se com um homem rico e profundamente racista. Irene e negra por compromisso moral; Clare quer voltar a ser negra, por prazer. Em uma sociedade cega a ambiguidade racial, Irene e Clare, como as duas metades do yin yang, esto em constante busca por um espaço o qual nunca podero ocupar plenamente. Clare, a negra que se passa por branca, fascina e angustia Irene, a negra que pensa como branca. Nos polos opostos, seus maridos: o branco racista que quer levar Clare para a Europa; o medico negro que sonha em mudar a familia para o Brasil. A essa perigosa tenso social soma-se uma carga sexual, precipitando o desfecho inexoravel para as pessoas de cor que no encontram seu lugar em um mundo em preto e branco.

Nella Larsen was an important writer associated with the Harlem Renaissance. While she was not prolific her work was powerful and critically acclaimed. Collected here are both of her novels, Passing and Quicksand. Passing confronts the reality of racial passing. The novel focuses on two childhood friends Clare and Irene, both of whom are light-skinned enough to pass as white, who have reconnected with one another after many years apart. Clare has chosen to pass while Irene has embraced her racial heritage and become an important member of her community. The novel examines how people pass on many different levels and in many different ways. Some forms of passing are perfectly acceptable while others can lead to disaster. Quicksand, was autobiographical in nature and examined a womans need for sexual fulfilment balanced against respectability and acceptance amid a deeply religious society. The novel is deeply pessimistic and ends as the protagonist is sucked into a life that is at odds with all that she had desired.

Nella Larsen was an important writer associated with the Harlem Renaissance. While she was not prolific her work was powerful and critically acclaimed. Passing confronts the reality of racial passing. The novel focuses on two childhood friends Clare and Irene, both of whom are light skinned enough to pass as white, who have reconnected with one another after many years apart. Clare has chosen to pass while Irene has embraced her racial heritage and become an important member of her community. The Novel examines how people pass on many different levels and in many different ways. Some forms of passing are perfectly acceptable while others can lead to disaster.

Nella Larsen was an important writer associated with the Harlem Renaissance. While she was not prolific, her work was powerful and critically acclaimed. Quicksand was autobiographical in nature and examined a womans need for sexual fulfilment balanced against respectability and acceptance amid a deeply religious society.

Nella Larsen was an important writer associated with the Harlem Renaissance. While she was not prolific, her work was powerful and critically acclaimed. Collected here are both of her novels, "Passing" and "Quicksand", as well as all three of her published short stories; "Freedom,""The Wrong Man", and "Sanctuary". "Quicksand" was autobiographical in nature and examined a womans need for sexual fulfilment balanced against respectability and acceptance amid a deeply religious society. The novel is deeply pessimistic and ends as the protagonist is sucked into a life that is at odds with all that she desired. "Passing" confronts the reality of racial passing. The novel focuses on two childhood friends, Clare and Irene, both of whom are light-skinned enough to pass as white, who have reconnected with one another after many years apart. Clare has chosen to pass while Irene has embraced her racial heritage and become an important member of her community. The novel examines how people pass on many different levels and in many different ways. Some forms of passing are perfectly acceptable while others can lead to disaster.

HarperCollins is proud to present its incredible range of best-loved, essential classics. She wished to find out about this hazardous business of passing, this breaking away from all that was familiar and friendly to take ones chance in another environment The elegant Clare Kendry glides through New Yorks high-society circles with ease, until the day she is reacquainted with her childhood friend, Irene. Clare chooses to pass as white, hiding her African American heritage from her bigoted husband, while Irene leads a life that embraces it. As both women observe the other, a relationship of mutual fascination, obsession and secrets begins, one that will end in devastating circumstances. Published in 1929, Nella Larsens Passing lays bare the complexities of identity, race, class and gender. The novella established Larsen as one of the most important female authors in American literature and is considered a literary masterpiece of the Harlem Renaissance era.

A remarkable volume that brings together the complete fiction of the author of Passing and Quicksand, one of the most gifted writers of the Harlem Renaissance. "An original and hugely insightful writer." The New York TimesThroughout her short but brilliant literary career, Nella Larsen wrote piercing dramas about the black middle class that featured sensitive, spirited heroines struggling to find a place where they belonged. Passing, Larsens best-known work, is a disturbing story about the unraveling lives of two childhood friends, one of whom turns her back on her past and marries a white bigot. Just as disquieting is the portrait in Quicksand of Helga Crane, half black and half white, who is unable to escape her loneliness no matter where and with whom she lives. Race and marriage offer few securities here or in the other stories in this compulsively readable collection, rich in psychological complexity and imbued with a sense of place that brings Harlem vibrantly to life.

Lapsuudenystavat Irene ja Clare ovat taustaltaan afroamerikkalaisia, ihonvariltaan vaaleita naisia, joita elama on vienyt eri suuntiin. Irene elaa mustan laakarimiehensa ja kahden poikansa kanssa mustien yhteisossa New Yorkin Harlemissa, Clare on valinnut elaman valkoisena, eika hanen rasistinen miehensa tieda hanen juuristaan. Kun ystavykset vuosien jalkeen kohtaavat, he joutuvat tarkastelemaan elamaansa, identiteettiaan ja valintojaan uusin silmin.Naisten valille syntyy monivivahteinen suhde, jota varittavat salaisuudet, ristiriidat ja keskinainen vetovoima. Kummankin elamassa avautuu uusi lehti. Tarina paattyy traagisesti, mutta loppu jattaa tilaa tulkinnoille. Mita tapahtui todellisuudessa, mika oli pelkkaa kuvitelmaa? Vaikuttiko joku tapahtumien kulkuun?Romaanin teema on paivanpolttava: mista identiteetti rakentuu, mika on etnisen taustan, luokan ja sukupuolen merkitys. Paaseeko juuriaan pakoon?

A NETFLIX BOOK CLUB PICKNella Larsens powerful, thrilling, and tragic tale about the fluidity of racial identity that continues to resonate today. A New York Times Editors Choice. Now a major motion picture starring Tessa Thompson and Alexander SkarsgrdOne of The Atlantics Great American Novels of the Past 100 YearsClare Kendry is living on the edge. Light-skinned, elegant, and ambitious, she is married to a racist white man unaware of her African American heritage, and has severed all ties to her past after deciding to pass as a white woman. Clares childhood friend, Irene Redfield, just as light-skinned, has chosen to remain within the African American community, and is simultaneously allured and repelled by Clares risky decision to engage in racial masquerade for personal and societal gain. After frequenting African American-centric gatherings together in Harlem, Clares interest in Irene turns into a longing for Irenes black identity that she abandoned and can never embrace again, and she is forced to grapple with her decision to pass for white in a way that is both tragic and telling. This edition features a new introduction by Emily Bernard and notes by Thadious M. Davis.For more than seventy years, Penguin has been the leading publisher of classic literature in the English-speaking world. With more than 1,700 titles, Penguin Classics represents a global bookshelf of the best works throughout history and across genres and disciplines. Readers trust the series to provide authoritative texts enhanced by introductions and notes by distinguished scholars and contemporary authors, as well as up-to-date translations by award-winning translators.

NOW A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE STARRING TESSA THOMPSON AND RUTH NEGGATwo women in 1920s New York discover how fluid and dangerous our perceptions of race can be in this electrifying classic of the Harlem Renaissancewith an introduction by Kaitlyn Greenidge, author of We Love You, Charlie Freeman, finalist for the Center for Fiction First Novel PrizeThe genius of this book is that its protagonists . . . are complex and fully realized. . . . The work of a highly talented and thoughtful writer.Richard Bernstein, The New York TimesOne of The Atlantics Great American Novels of the Past 100 YearsIrene Redfield is living an affluent, enviable life with her husband and children in the thriving African American enclave of Harlem in the 1920s. That is, until she runs into her childhood friend, Clare Kendry. Since they last saw each other, Clare, who is similarly light-skinned, has been passing for a white woman, married to a racist man who does not know about his wifes real identity, which she has chosen to hide from the rest of the world. Irene is both fascinated and repulsed by Clares dangerous secret, and in turn, Clare yearns for Irenes sense of ease and security with her Black identity and community, which Clare gave up in pursuit of a more advantageous life, and which she can never embrace again. As the two women grow close, Clare begins to insert herself and her deception into every part of Irenes stable existence, and their complex reunion sets off a chain of events that dynamically alters both women forever. In this psychologically gripping and chilling novel, Nella Larsen explores the blurriness of race, sacrifice, alienation, and desire that defined her own experience as a woman of mixed race, issues that still powerfully resonate today. Ultimately, Larsen forces us to consider whether we can ever truly choose who we are.The Modern Library Torchbearers series features women who wrote on their own terms, with boldness, creativity, and a spirit of resistance.