Passing Novels in the Harlem Renaissance offers an insightful study of the significance of passing novels for the literary and intellectual debate of the Harlem Renaissance. Mar Gallego effectively uncovers the presence of a subversive component in five of these novels (by James Weldon Johnson, George Schuyler, Nella Larsen, and Jessie Fauset), turning them into useful tools to explore the passing phenomenon in all its richness and complexity. Her compelling study intends to contribute to the ongoing revision of the parameters conventionally employed to analyze passing novels by drawing attention to a great variety of textual strategies such as double consciousness, parody, and multiple generic covers. Examining the hybrid nature of these texts, Gallego skillfully highlights their radical critique of the status quo and their celebration of a distinct African American identity.
" Passing Novels in the Harlem Renaissance is an impressive work of scholarship and interpretation. It is well researched and stimulating to read." Hanna Wallinger, University of Salzburg
"Mar Gallego draws our renewed attention to the uses and subversions of the trope of passing that have characterized the African American novelistic tradition also in the twentieth century." Giulia Fabi, University of Ferrara
"Mar Gallego's thorough scholarship now provides us with a new, in-depth and refreshing reading of texts we thought we already knew something about. A provocative text and a welcome addition to the field!" Justine Tally, University of La Laguna
Mar Gallego is Associate Professor of American Studies at the University of Huelva (Spain) and her research interests involve ethnic literatures in the US, particularly African American Studies and the African diaspora. She has published extensively in the field and has co-edited Myth and Ritual in African American and Native American Literatures (2001) and Contemporary Views on the Vietnam Era: Focusing the Great 60's (2002).
