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Seeing Black Women Anew through Lesbian Desire in Nella Larsen'sPassing

H. JORDAN LANDRY
UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN OSHKOSH

Americans commit themselves to "loving blackness,"as bell hooks calls African-American ethnic pride (9-10).' By loving blackness,the novels promise, AfricanAmericanswill advanceAfrican-American culture, overcomeinternalized and achieve emotional these novels createa powerful, racism, stability.2 Together, early20th-centurydiscourseabout embracingethnic pride and resistingassimilation into white culture. this discoursechampionsits iconoclasticideasabout raceby inUnfortunately, conventional The popularliterary voking imagesof women'sgenderand sexuality. of the "mulatto" woman in of and her role the figure triangle desire, the literary device structuringalmost all narrative in the Westernliterarytradition(Sedgwick The mulatto woman plays 1-20; Girard1-38), become centralto this discourse.3 one of two rolesin the discourse's of desire.In the first,she conformsto the triangles most conventionalform of femininityimaginableand woos the blackman toward ethnic pride.Accordingto this discourse,the mulattowoman'sextremefemininity bolstersthe blackman'smasculinity, power,and confirminghis senseof superiority, control. This ego boost endows the black man with the capacityto take pride in African-American cultureand contributeto it ratherthan assimilatinginto white society.In the second, the mulatto woman defies all the sex and gendernorms of dominantcultureand luresthe blackman into vassalage to whiteness.Her rebellion againstpredefinedsex and genderrolesfeminizesherpartner, therebyseducinghim into false servility.Since this discoursedefines conventional femininity as sexual loyalty,submission,and homageto a blackman, the way for the mulattowoman to expressethnic prideis not simply throughloving a blackman but actuallythrough herselfto one. Of course,embracinginferiorityis a limited form of subordinating In mulattowomen'ssubmissionas positive, prideindeed.4 additionto representing this early20th-centuryliterarydiscourseblamesassimilationon mulatto women's Thus, mulatto women must pursuitof freedomfrom genderand sexualstrictures.

eginningin the 1910s and 1920s, a series of novels advocatethat African

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regulatetheir genderand sexualityfor ethnic pride to burgeon,and their failureto do so spellsa threatto the continuationof African-American culture. These imagesof mulatto women circulatewidely from the 1910s to the 1920s due to a shift in interestamong African-American writers.Whereaslate 19th- and literatureoften stressedthe need for white African-American turn-of-the-century to culture acceptAfricanAmericans,by the 1910s and 1920s, African-American traditions writersbegan to encouragepride in both Africanand African-American fromwhite culture.This dramaticshift in valuesresultsin a corresponding separate roles in of mulatto women. Through the two stereotypical change representations allotted to mulatto women, writersweight the major "choice"within the erotic triangle-that of ethnic pride or assimilation--with genderedmeanings. In Passing, Larsen reveals thatthesetwo dominantfictionsaboutmulattowomen of genderidentitycauswomen of mixedethnicity's effectively regulate performance ing them to enact a normativeversionof femininity.Accordingto Larsen,the two fictions encourageself-regulation by escalatingthese women'sanxiety.As a result, the women become more awareof others'externalpolicing of their behaviorand, in reaction, internalizethese judgments and police themselves.In Larsen's work, women of mixed ethnicity fear being defined by other AfricanAmericansas race traitorsif they resistsexual and gender norms. Yet, their attempts to live up to a fictionalized idealof femininityincreases theirsenseof failureand self-blameas they find it impossibleto conform themselvescontinuallyto such an image. Moreover, accordingto Larsen,the more women of mixed ethnicity investin mulatto female men from ethnic and the more they blameeachotherfor and exonerate stereotypes, sexualbetrayal.In Passing,Larsenquestions this constructionof mulatto women as raceand sexualtraitorsby tracingsuch blame back to the contemporary literary discoursethat imaginesracialuplift as dependenton women'scontainment.5 Beyond revealingwomen's regulationby them, Nella Larsenchallengesthese of women throughtwo dramaticchanges:she reconfigures popularrepresentations the triangleof desireand women'sroleswithin the triangle.With such challenges, affirmswomen of mixed ethnicity'squest for ethnic pride. For Larsen,the Passing quest'ssuccess depends on women of mixed ethnicity'swillingness to defy both In the popular of them and traditional sexand genderexpectations. men'sregulation discourse,the trianglesof desire,while including mulattowomen, highlight them In andsuperiority. to substantiate blackmalemasculinity, predominantly desirability, this way,the trianglesaremale-dominated; men'swants and needs trumpwomen's. Instead,Larsencreateswomen-dominatedtriangleswithin which women'sdesires This innovationprovides and bodiesriseto the foreseparate from maleprerogatives. Larsen with the meansto focus on sexualbonds betweenwomen. In the process,she
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Lesbian Desire in Nella Larsen's Passing

shows that, for her two main characters, Ireneand Clare,loving blacknessbecomes inextricable from loving femaleness. tied to a sexuality havenot yet creditedLarsen with representing Critics,however, in relationvariousstrategies pridein blackand femaleembodiment.Instead,critics' to black female sexual desireand tend to if not ship Passing actuallyoppose, separate, Deborah pridein African-American identity.In hergroundbreaking essayon Passing, McDowell becomes the firstcritic to comment extensivelyon the lesbiandesireso rifein the text.YetMcDowell dividesblackfemalesexualityfromracialpolitics.She as disguisingits realconcernwith lesbiansexuality behindits more interprets Passing overttheme of racialpassing(xxiii-xxvi).McDowell'soriginalessayset the termsfor the criticaldebate surroundingLarsen's novel. Therefore,subsequentessays,even when not engagingthe theme of lesbianismovertly,often repeatthis separationof ethnic pride from female desire.' Some criticslike Judith Butler and Bimau Basu challengeMcDowell'sparadigm,calling for a theory that considersrace, sex, and them. Yet, this new paradigmrepeatsthe sexualitytogetherratherthan separating idea that lesbian desireis at odds with a desirefor blackness.In this later critical a term Butler employs tack, Irene'slesbian desiresprings from Clare's"trespass," and Basu cites refers to Clare's racialpassing as Since (276) (385-387). "trespass" and Basu's Irene's desirefor Clareoriginatesfrom white, in Butler's interpretations, Clare's connection to whiteness.This formulationcastslesbiandesirein the text as symptomaticof desirefor whiteness.As such, for Irene,lesbian desirebecomes a form of assimilationto white culture. Most criticswho readlesbianeroticsin Passing agree,then, that whitenessis the initiatorof lesbian desirebetween the two women. Critics intend this readingas of whiteness,high-classstatus,and bourgeois overvaluation commentaryon Irene's however, domesticity,all of which she associateswith safety.This interpretation, overlooksIrene'sand Clare'sawe of and delight in the signs of blacknessthey see in each other'sbodies. In her discussionof ethnic pride, bell hooks points out her students'resistance "Iaskedthe classto to acknowledging Clare's love of blackness: considerthe possibilitythat to love blacknessis dangerousin a white supremacist culture-so threatening,so seriousa breachin the fabricof the social order,that death is the punishment"(9). Hooks seesher students'reluctanceto discussClare's loving blacknessas a reflectionof the largerculture'sinability to conceive of the Clare's possibilityof loving blackness(9-10). I would extend hooks'idea regarding love of blacknessand furthersuggest that critics'readingsof Passingreproducea culturalsilenceaboutblackwomen lovingblackwomen. In otherwords,the ideaof blackwomen havinglesbiandesirefor other blackwomen, specifically due to their in a society embodimentof blacknessand femaleness,is virtuallyincomprehensible
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H.Jordan Landry

that repeatedlymarksAfrican-American women as victimized and blameworthy ratherthan touting their positivepotentialities. interest My own work builds from previousscholarshipthat recognizesLarsen's in lesbiandesire.FollowingcriticsBasu and Butler's I consider race,sex, and lead, of Passing. Yet, by using feminist theories sexualitytogetherin my interpretations of the body and, then, consideringPassingin the historicalcontext of Harlem Reof opposing lesbian naissancenovels, I correctthe continuing trend in scholarship and earlier of desire representations loving blackness.I show how Passing challenges the mulatto femalecharacter and and offer an alternative readingin which Irene's Clare's lesbiandesireemergesfrom their idealizationof the blackfemale body. To historicize Larsen's of ClareandIrene,I will tracethe rolemulatto representation novelsappearwomen playwithin erotictrianglesin a seriesof HarlemRenaissance African-American between and In of their 1910 construction 1920. ing triangles, writersrevisewhatJeanKennardcalls"thetwo-suitorconvention,"which underlies a majorityof novels from the 18th century on, in orderto expose whiteness as a simulacrum.Accordingto Kennard,an author often plots the development of a femalecharacter herchoice betweentwo suitors,one of whom signiby representing fies negativevaluesthe heroine must rejectand the other positivevaluesshe must revisionof this white Western develop a taste for (13-15). The African-American and blacktraditionforegrounds a choicebetweenwhiteness,the deviantpossibility, character's the the In these within the ness, triangles, properpossibility, triangle. choice of the wrong beloved revealshis/her internalizedracismand corruptvalue desiresthe deviantpossibilitypreciselybecausehe/she invests system;the character of white culture.Mulatto unquestioninglyin popularmyths about the superiority women often face a choice between a white and a black man within the triangle of desire.In contrast,blackmen usuallychoose betweentwo mulattowomen, one with allegianceto whitenessand the other to blackness. To make the wrong choice in the triangleof desireleadsthe character not only into rejectionof his/heroriginal racialand culturalidentificationbut also into a breakingof gendernorms.7 as evidentin the dominant paradigms of the erotictrianglesdescribed Crucially, above, mulatto women lure others into whitenessin ways that black men do not. Whereasmulatto women tempt black men into white cultureand its values, it is white not black men who entice mulatto women and symbolize their distorted view of whiteness. Indeed, even when a black man chooses a beloved becauseof her ties to whiteness,this choice turns out to be not his own but a woman'sfault. For example,in JessieFauset'sThere is Confusion, Joel chooses a light-skinnedwife becausehe associatesthis skin color with whiteness.Yet,Joel'schoice can be traced back to his own mother'sbelief that white men alone are capable of occupying
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racismstuntsJoel'sdreamof being a positions of power.His mother'sinternalized "manamongmen"and leadsto his own desirefor a womanwho seeminglypossesses those signs of whiteness that his mother so loves. Fauset's of Joel's representation white-identifiedblack mother and mulatto wife exemplifiesa majortrend in the 1910s and 1920s. Blackmen in the trianglebecome seducedby signs symbolizing illusionsaboutwhitenessonly becausewhite-identifiedwomen encouragethem to value such signs. In contrast,mulattowomen purchaseinto the belief that signs of whiteness guaranteea path to leisure,wealth, and employmentwith no influence from African-American men whatsoever. This patternsuggeststhat mulatto women aretied to white cultureby the discourse in ways that African-American men are not. According to this discourse, mulatto women are most likely to assimilateinto white culture, remainignorant of theirown internalized racism,and privilegewhitenessoverblackness.Moreover, mulatto women lure African-American men into white culturewhereasAfricanAmericanmen do not take others down with them as they decline into a delusion about the benefits of whiteness. In these repetitions,the novels censuremulatto women as abandoningtheir originalblack-identified family,community,and self. mulatto woman as capableof endangeringthe race as they induce They portray African-American men with immensecapacities to abandonblackcultureforwhite culture. In essence, the novels image mulatto women as potential traitorsto the African-American culture. I want to stresshere that my readingof how triangulations work to exposefalse beliefsaboutwhitenessrelieson an understanding In of whitenessas a simulacrum. use of the term,a simulacrum and perpetuis an illusionpreserved JeanBaudrillard's ated by an intricatesign systemwhose very scope endlesslyvalidatesthe verity of the illusion. Moreover,preciselybecausethe sign systemso widely disseminatesit, the myth is, in fact, real;the myth takeson materialform in the world as it comes to inform human relationships, forms of knowledge,and social institutions(1-4).8 Whiteness fits this definitionof a simulacrum.It is both a constructedillusion and one that has real-lifeconsequences. In HarlemRenaissance novels,it is mulattowomen who believeunquestioningly at firstin the simulacrumof whiteness.They areshown asjeopardizing blackmen's Fauset's text from In the whiteness over blackness. masculinityby valuing example above, entrapmentin a trianglein which neitherhis mulatto wife nor his mother supportsthe vision of blackmale powerleavesJoel to live out his days as a caterer. The novel ties this job to a feminizationof the blackman, sinceJoel'sform of employment closely repeatshis mother'sown position as a servantto whites.' James WeldonJohnson'sTheAutobiography (firstedition 1912 and ofan Ex-ColoredMan
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second edition 1927) also tracesthe black man'sbad choices back to an offending blackwoman. Despitethe white father's of the familyto marrya white abandonment to alignhimself unnamednarrator, woman, the motherstill urgesherson, the novel's with whitenessand the fatherand to disidentifywith blacknessand herself.'0 As a result,the narrator ultimatelypassesin orderto marrya white woman, becoming in the processa white, wealthy,feminine man with no connectionsto what he calls "mymother'speople." Man establishes JamesWeldon Johnson'sTheAutobiography ofan Ex-Colored another dominant paradigm for Harlem Renaissance texts. In it, the mulatto woman, facedwith a choice betweenwhitenessand blacknesswithin a triangleof she transfers this worshipof whitenessto a male desire,chooseswhiteness.Further, his desireforwhiteness choicesand overdetermining son, therebyshapinghis career within future trianglesof desire.For example,as both Siobhan B. Somervilleand with his white male patron Phillip BrianHarperreveal,the narrator's relationship mirrorshis mother'srelationshipwith the white father (Somerville 120; Harper and Harper's 111). Although never stated explicitly by either critic, Somerville's as modelnarrator unnamed that the Johnson images argumentsimplicitlysuggest her choices.Thus, Johnsonblamesthe ing himself afterhis mother and replicating unnamednarrator's on his mother's unconventionalheterosexuality. homosexuality The mulattowoman'slove of whiteness,coded as sexualprostitution,leadsthe unnamed narrator to exchangehimselffor monetarygain.Thus, the triangleof desire in these texts works to connect the mulatto character's sexualdeviancewith race of black male with annihilation the or devolution betrayaland, further, complete writersoften rely on the unmasculinity.As in Johnson'stext, African-American simulacrum of women'ssexualityand genderto exposethe simulacrum questioned of race;reaffirmation of longstandingwhite middle-classideologiesabout women is meant to destabilizeracialconstructs. Anotherpopularconfiguration blackwomen not merely of the trianglecriticizes for influencingblackmen'schoicesbut actuallyabandoningthem for white goods, white men, or a careerin white society.The mulattowoman chooses these signs of whitenessin orderto accessleisure,power,respectability, wealth.In the and material she attributes normative on masculine either process, rejects femininity by taking or forsakingmotherhood. In this way, strayingfrom normativeforms of gender and sexualityis equivalentto race betrayalwith black men standing for the race. Walter White'sFlightandJessieFauset's andPlumBun follow this There is Confusion formulafor triangulation. In them, the censureof femalegenderunconventionality and sexualfreedomis apparentin the blackman'ssuffering.In There is Confusion, the main woman character choice of ambitious an Joanna's professionalsinging
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careerin white culturedrivesoff the African-American male love objectand threatens his sense of reality,control, and power."1 In Flight,the passingwoman Mimi's to a white son motherless man for financial marriage securityleavesher mixed-race and abandoned.Plum Bun actuallyassociatesmulatto women's passingwith the abilityto kill off the blackman.12 These novelsvilify the mulattowoman as a threat to African-American male survival.Criticssuch as SusanTomlinsonand Kathleen Pfeifferhavearguedthat Fausetarticulates in her text. Such a feministconsciousness careers of Fauset's of women's emphasize readings representation capability establishing for themselves(Tomlinson94-97; Pfeiffer89-90). Yet,such readingsoverlookthe fact that Fausetassociatesthese careers with a warpedvalue system that privileges illusions about whitenessover all other considerations. Within the erotic triangle, the mulatto figurefacesa choice betweena sign for whiteness-expensive goods, a white man, or a career-and a black male and chooses the sign for whitenessonly for materialcomfort while rejectingthe black male. Such a plot works to blame African-American women for their overvaluationof class trappings,a preference that deprivesblackmalesof nurtureand masculinestatus. Yet, ultimately, this plot formation traces a trajectoryin which the mulatto woman comes to re-embrace black culture through renewedlove of black males. She redeemsherselfonly by adopting the most conventionalforms of femininity, ones that subordinatethe self to male needs and wants. Flight closes with Mimi leavingher white husbandfor "PetitJean [herson]-my own people-and happiness"(300). Mimi'sfantasyaboutwhatwhitenessentailscrumblesthroughmother consciousness weldedto raceconsciousness, indicatedby the way the dashesredefine PetitJeanas her own people. In There is Confusion, to her fiance'srequestthat she "take[him] and make a man out of him,"Joannarepliesby renouncingher singing careerand recoveringan essentialfemininity: "Her desire for greatnesshad been a sort of superimposedstructurewhich, having been taken off, left her her true self" (291). LikeJoannabeforeher,Angela of Plum Bun decides to relinquishher interest in white society in order to pursueAnthony, her AfricanAmericanlove interest.The feminist readingsof Fausetoutlined above only work because they text. Yet, the endings make the woman's give short shriftto the ending of Fauset's earlierchoicessuspect.For example,sending up the cry of all Fauset's raciallyloyal good women, Angela declaresthat while work would be Anthony'sambition, he would be hers:"He should be her task,her 'job,' the fulfillmentof her ambition." In Fauset's novels, femalesubmissionto the blackmale actuallyensureshis masculinity and his futureprofession.In these constructionsof the triangle,the mulatto woman'ssenseof duty to African-American malesmotivatesher to extricateherself from white society;only desirefor blackmales,whetherheterosexual or maternal,
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leads the black woman to overthrowthe white man. Seemingly,the only way to encode the necessity of raceprideis throughblackwomen'ssubmissionto traditional and black men.13 femininity,heterosexuality, Evenmore perniciousarethe imagesof mulattowomen as simultaneouslymasculine, sexuallyperverse,and violent. This sexuallyand morallycorruptmulatto woman temptsthe blackman awayfrom a properwoman who retainsher femininity and refusesto mix sex with money.When the men choose the corruptwoman instead of the properone, they end up prostitutedto women, the ultimate form of feminization.CarlVan Vechten's NiggerHeavenand Claude McKay'sHome to Harlemrepresent within the triangleof desire their"bad" mulattofemalecharacters in violence, or securas prostitutingthemselvesin exchangefor cash, participating male'ssexual servicesthrough money. McKay equates ing the African-American monied African-American women with jungleanimalsand, thereby, light-skinned, with degeneracy. 14 For McKay,money is the ultimatesign of savagepowerand his male is shown as having of women alone is clear;no African-American derogation Like McKay, the wealth possessedindividuallyby the text'sthree "mulatress[es]." Van Vechtenimagesthe mulatto Lascaas having excessivewealth unconnectedto values, promiscuoussexualhabits, and contempt any career,immoral upper-class for the blackrace-best capturedin her denigrationof her blackmale lover Byron as "youfilthy Nigger kept boy"(259-260). As McKayand VanVechtenenvision it, forwomen, genderinversionand sexual perversitycome about through the possessionsimultaneouslyof light skin color, money,and leisuretime that togetherallowmulattowomen to purchaseblackmen in sexual to panderto theirsadomasochistic desires.Mulattowomen who participate their desirabilsense of men's prostitutionand violence for pleasurecorrodeblack As usual,African-American men neverlose their masculinity ity and masculinity. from mulatto women but only in relationshipto them. separate Larsendenounces the representation of mulatto women as prostitutesand beof trayers the black race.Through a readingof Larsen,Robyn Wiegman unravels the ways in which the definitionof blacknessin Americareliessolely on the visual, while whitenessdependson the visibilityof blacknessnot whitenessto define itself. in a text that bemoansthe ways that criticsoverlookAfrican-AmeriYet, ironically, can women'sparticularity, text only to discuss race, Wiegman referencesLarsen's nevereven glancingtowardsthe representation of sex and gender in it. Following her examplebut extending it to sex as well, analysisof Larsen's explorationreveals how the vision of African-American women, not just blackness,is implicatedin "a seriesof bodily fictions"(21).

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Larseninsistson the fictionalqualityof representations of mulattowomen and the falseassumptionsunderlyingthem:

And she could remember quite vividly how, when they used to repeat and discuss

these lookknowingly atone stories about thegirls would Clare, always tantalizing another andthen, withlittle their and excited eyes shining away eager giggles, drag with as undertones of some such or disbelief "Oh, well, say lurking thing regret
havebeen Clare...." or "After all, it mayn't maybeshe'sgot a job or something," And alwayssome girl, more matter-of-fact or more franklymaliciousthan the
and they certainly know her when they see her as well as we do." ... And then

woulddeclare: "Ofcourse it wasClare! Ruthsaidit wasandso didFrank, rest,

its having about thatthere couldbe no mistake theywouldalljoinin asserting beenClare, andthatsuchcircumstances couldmeanonlyone thing.Working indeed! not didn't taketheirservants fordinner. to theShelby Certainly People alldressed like up that.(153) These tantalizingstoriesshow how stereotypesof the mulatto female character as the white man shewas promiscuousracebetrayers passas truth.SinceClaremarried seen with, these storiesturn out to be patentlyfalse. But the fiction itself produces two powerfuleffects:it bonds the group togetherat the expenseof the woman of mixed ethnicityaswell as providessafevicariouspleasure These and entertainment. double benefitsinsure that the fiction will not be easily questioned.Indeed, each small effort to question the fiction producesa redoubleddefense of it until "they would all join in asserting" the truth of the fiction. By definingthis gossipbetween stories" and emphasizinga group consensusabout the veracity girls as "tantalizing of the stories,Larsenreferences fiction generallyabout mulattowomen and reader of mixedethnicity this fiction for shapingfemalereaders responseto it. She criticizes to believethat they areblameworthy. as merely Barbara ChristiandismissesPassing (4). But, in fact, Larsen continuing in the traditionalstereotypingof the "mulatta" dedicates herself to revealingthe storied quality of such representations.Larsen claims that, as popular discoursedenigrates,devalues,sexualizes,and objectifies mulatto women, actualwomen of mixed ethnicity begin to believe this story and judge each other and themselvesaccordingly. In deliveringher criticismof such fiction, Larsensignals that repeatedstories between bringabout an inabilityto see. RobynWiegman's studyof the relationship raceand vision illuminatesLarsen's In of this situation. my unparticular, critique of regulation derstanding proceedsfromWiegman's argumentthat discourseshapes vision to see the body.Thus, vision is not a neutralreceptor of bodilyimages(17-42). As shown in the last quotation above,vision is structuredby a binarizednarrative about women of mixed ethnicity: either they are morally respectableservantsto whites who remainexiled from upper-classmaterialcomforts or they are morally
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into the joys of materialism only throughsex reprehensible prostitutesinaugurated with white men. Since Clarewas seen in the context of an expensiverestaurant, in elegant clothes, with a white man, she can be understoodonly in terms of the latternarrative. The problem is that the girls fail to realizethe ways in which narrativeconditions theirvision. Instead,they invoke vision as the ultimateand most to unravel threatens authenticform of knowing Clare,when theirown uncertainty their belovedstories:"Ruthsaid it was [Clarethat she saw] and so did Frank,and they certainlyknow her when they see her as well as we do." Ruth'sand Frank's on theirseeingher. storiesarepredicated on theirknowingClarewhich is predicated Larsenshows that knowledge,vision, and storiesall work togetherto give credence to falsebeliefsthat women of mixed ethnicityare raceand sexualtraitors. This particular form of corrosive seeingthe seeingof women continuesin Irene's woman of mixedethnicitythroughmen'seyes.Evenwhen men resortto violencein This theirinteractions with women, Ireneblameswomen for evokingthe response. blame echoes the blame usuallyleveled at mulattowomen within Harlem Renaissance novels. LarsenportraysIreneas internalizingthis blame in orderto show its female psyche. Irene'srepeatedblamdamagingeffects on the African-American ing of women of mixed ethnicity,including herself,for men'segregiousbehaviors demonstrates herunconsciousdesireto alignherselfwith the dominantperspective, no matterhow wrong. It furthersignifiesher compulsiveneed to reducewomen of mixed ethnicityto the mulattofemalestereotype, the womanwho is alwaysculpable for men'smoraltransgressions. Ireneconforms In herremembrance his daughter, of Clare's father's violencetoward rebellionagainsther her view of Clareto male perception.Ireneremembers Clare's father's dictatethat he be given all her earnings,a grandtotal of a dollar: on Andfora swiftmoment seemed to seea palesmall Irene Redfield girlsitting whileherdrunken a ragged bluesofa,sewing of bright redclothtogether, pieces a tall,powerfully builtman,raged father, up anddowntheshabby threateningly
room, bellowing curses and making spasmodic lunges at her which were not the less frightening because they were, for the most part, ineffectual. Sometimes he

and herself to reach didmanage her.Butonlythefactthatthechildhadedged thatshewas herpoorsewing over to thefarthermost corner of thesofasuggested
in anyway perturbed by this menaceto herselfand herwork.

of thedola portion Clare to take hadknown wellenough thatit wasunsafe forthedressmaker larthatwasherweekly errands wageforthedoingof many
who lived on the top floor of the building of which Bob Kendry was janitor. But

school's thatknowledge to go to herSunday hadnot deterred her.Shewanted

picnic, and she had made up her mind to wear a new dress. So, in spite of certain unpleasantness and possible danger, she had taken the money to buy the material

forthatpathetic littleredfrock. (143-144)

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selfishness; OstensiblyIreneconjuresthis memoryto proveClare's yet the adjectives little,"and "farthermost" describingthe scenefunctionotherwise."Poor," "pathetic to the of Clare's desires and demands. speak supposedwild rebelmeagerness Clare's lion, excessof desire,and selfishways turn out to be a ratherminor, even pitiful, attempt to establishan independent female identity.Yet, in pursuit of this small dream, Clare withstands harrowinginjustice and threateningviolence from her drunken father.Larsenconveys a double message:she criticizesClare'sfatherfor his daughterthroughviolence,and she rebukesIrenefor complicitywith regulating this violence in her harshjudgment of Clare's paltryattemptsat resistance. The phrase"IreneRedfieldseemedto see"emphasizes the constrictionof Irene's gaze, her inability to see Clare outside of the conventional mode. This wording resonateswith doubleness. Literally,it refersto the fact that Irene'sseeing Clare isn'tactualbecauseshe is accessingmemory.Figuratively, however,it acknowledges that ideology about women of mixed ethnicity,ideologypromulgatedthroughthe mulatto literaryfigure,obscuresIrene's seeing. Irenecan'tsee Clarebecauseher vision is complicit in Clare's father's seeing. Like him, she despisesClarefor takinga fractionof a dollarof her own money in orderto go to a Sundayschool picnic. Like him, she believesthat Clarehas a failureof allegianceto black men. When men arein the room, eitherin actualityor simplyin memory,Irenetakes the male victimizer's view that women should not develop identities and desires separatefrom men. At a tea party in Clare'shotel room, Irene is againwitness to male violence directedat Clare:when Clare "laidher hand on [herhusbandJack Bellew's] arm with an affectionate little gesture,"asking him "'whatdifference would it makeif, afterall theseyears,you wereto find out I was one or two percent colored' ... Bellew put out his hand in a repudiatingfling, definite and final ... 'No niggersin my family.Never have been and neverwill be"' (171). Like Clare's father,herhusbandBellewinsiststhroughverbaland physicalviolenceon his ability to control Clare'sidentity,his own, and his family's.Bellew bodily rejectsClare's little gesture"at the least hint that her self-definitionmight change. "affectionate CherylA. Wall explainsthat for both women: "Eachreflectsand is a reflectionof her husband'sclass status"(125). I would add that it is violence that forces both women to be that reflectionof the male. Larsenobservesthat control of women's racialand classidentity is crucialto men'sidentity,and, further,that any threatto this control initiates a violent response.Irene'sspontaneousalthough suppressed laughterconveysher beliefthat men should indeedcontrolwomen'sidentity.Thus, she registers her glee at the violence meant to contain Clare. of Clarequestion Irene's Yet, the descriptors assumptionthat Clareneeds to be containedby suggestingthat she alreadyis. Clarestrugglesto claim mere fractions
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and "thefarthermost of money,space,and racefor herself:"aportion of the dollar" cornerof the sofa"in the earlierscene and "oneor two percentcolored"in this one. Irene believesthat women of mixed ethnicity are threatening,even dangerous,if free.As she proclaims haveClareKendry... free"(239). This fear later,she "couldn't is bound to racistand sexist notions about women of mixed ethnicity'spropensity to betrayothers through sex. These ideas prime Ireneto see Clare'sbetrayals and, therefore,renderher blind to others',even her own, betrayalof Clare. One of the realbetrayers of Irenein the text is her own husband.Brianaccuses Ireneof a numberof failings,including lateness,sexualreticence,and generalconservativism.Brian'smisogyny fuels his virtual obsession with Irene'sflaws. After carefor ladies"(173). The doublenessof this phrasinghints at both all, he "doesn't ironic Brian's contempt for women and his failureto attend to them, particularly in his his career as a Irene for doctor. Brian's disdain crystallizes gestures given meant to regulateIrene to proper behavior:"Brianstood looking down on her with that amusedsmile of his, which was just the faintestbit superciliousand yet was somehow very becoming to him" (183). Immediatelyafter this scene, Brian "deftly, unnecessarily, pilot[ed] [Irene]roundthe two shortcurvedsteps,just before the centre landing"(184). Brian's violent gesturesin these two scenes, his look of condescensionin the one and control of Irene's movementdown the stairs,connect him to Bellewand Clare's father;like them, he claimsan imperiouscontroloverthe woman. MarthaCutterlinks Bellewand Briantogetherin their insistenceon only one stableidentity (85). They also mirroreach other in theirmanipulationof their wives and theirphallicvision, both ways of assuring women maintainthat singular and stableidentity.Irene's look of disdaindivulgesher servitude attraction to Brian's to a negativeviewingof theAfrican-American woman, evenif thatwoman is herself. Male violence leadsto the regulationof seeing much more explicitlyin this scene. For immediately after their downwarddescent in which Brian forcefullydirects Irene's not ... going to see body, he deliversa warningveiled as a question:"You're (184). That a male figuredemandsIrenenot see Clarehints at men'srole [Clare]?" in obscuringClarefrom Irene's vision. Complicatingthe earlierscenesin which IreneblamedClarefor men'sviolence onto herself for Brian's againsther,here,Irenedisplacesresponsibility aggressiveness and Clare, therebyvirtuallyjustifyinghis arrogantbehavior.Irene ventriloquizes "Forshewaslateagain, Brian's criticismof her,disguisingit as herown self-criticism: and Brian,she well knew detestedthat.Why, oh why,couldn'tshe evermanageto be on time?Brianhad been up for ages,had made some callsfor all she knew,besides having taken the boys downtown to school. And she wasn'tdressedyet; had only begun. Damn Clare!This morning it was her fault" (183). Self-blamecoincides
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with blame of Clare.Nowhere is thereeven a hint that Brian's attemptsto regulate her senseand use of time into a routinizeddailyritual,into white people'stime, are themselvestyrannical. identificaHere, the text points out that, despitea character's tion with blackness,he/she can still conform to white values and beliefs. Despite Brian's overallaffirmationof black identity,his love of timelinessis aligned in the text with the white businessworld. The text, afterall, refersto latenessas "cp"or coloredpeople'stime, suggestingnot that blacksareinherentlylate but ratherthat versionsof they refuseto regulatetheir time accordingto white Western-European time. As shown here,a myth of whites'and men'ssuperiority keepsin place a myth women's Ireneconsistentlyfailsto makemen blameworthiness. ofAfrican-American and whites culpablefor their own violence sprungfrom racismand misogyny. own personalnarrative By unveilingthe networkof myths that produceIrene's about women of mixed ethnicity'sinferiority, Larsentheorizesthe workingsof fictional representations of mulattowomen. Forher,textualblameof mulattowomen has two major drawbacks: first, the illusion of whiteness remainsfirmly in place since mulatto women arethe realtargetsof textualcriticismand, second, mulatto women's supposed provocationof male violence justifies any and all violence by men, whetherblackor white. The gestures versionof what passingbetweenClareand Irenearekeysto Larsen's Castle calls "lesbiancounterplotting."15 CastlerevisesEve Sedgwick's Terry theory of the primacyof male homosocialityin canonicaltextual triangles.She suggests that a lesbian counterplot can be identified whenever a narrativesuppressesthe potentialfor male homoeroticismand, instead,two women bond at the expenseof a relationship with a man (72-74). Passing constructssuch a counterplot.It denies that Bellew and Brian Redfield anypossibility Jack antipathy mightbond;eachman's towardsthe other raceprecludesconnection betweenthem. Moreover,the women associateonly by defying their husbands'favoriteforms of regulation.Through lesbiancounterplotting,Larsenrefusesto repeatthe popularstrategyof promoting mulatto women's self-regulationand self-effacementfor the bettermentof black males. In Passing, women of mixed ethnicity must throw off their internalization of male and white regulationin orderto indulge their desireand therebyrepossess theirown bodies.Lovingthe symbolsof blacknessaswell as femalenessin the other bringsabout a new abilityto love the self. Lesbianerotics also allow for an originalrewritingof the relationshipbetween the woman of mixedethnicity's illusionsand her desire.Usually,in HarlemRenaissancediscourse,as mulattowomen sloughoff illusionsaboutwhiteness,they renew their desirefor blackmen. Yet, Larsenscrapsthis design, plotting quite a different For Clare,disillusionmentwith whitenessand a revaluation of the Afritrajectory.
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can-American community grow out of seeing Irene.The personalpsychologythat initiatesthis reversal of values is complex. First,Clareexperienceserotic transference with Irene,imaginingher as a figurefor the protectiveblackfather.Later,she femaleself.16 fetishizesIrene,perceiving heras an imageof the lostAfrican-American Becauseof transference, Claredoes not want the nurturingblack fatherin a man but in a woman: a provocative difference,to be sure.The initial moment in which Clarefuses Irene's body with the father's capturesher erotic paternaltransference: "Goodbye,'Renedear.My love to your father,and this kiss for him"(162). Obvitransference ously,this kisslandson Irene's makingClare's body not on her father's, an enabling fiction that allows her to commune physicallywith Irene. Clare can both embracethe homoerotic and couch it in the familial. her desire The turn from transference to fetishizationon Clare's part reframes as moving away from the male in the woman to the woman herself.This interview which posits both Ireneand pretationis at odds with JacquelynMcLendon's Clareas cravinga releasefrom the body in orderto liberatethemselvesfrom sexual repression(11, 103). Accordingto de Lauretis,"In lesbianperversedesire ... the fantasmaticobject is the female body itself,whose originalloss in a femalesubject for the wound that the loss of the penis represents corresponds... to the narcissistic African-American to the male subject" If is shifted de Lauretis' "female (231). body" femalebody,such a theoryhelps to explainthe coalescenceof loss, pain, and desire overwhelmingClareafterseeing and partingfrom Irene: asI have ForI amlonely, so lonely... cannot to bewithyouagain, helplonging thebright Youcan't knowhowin thispalelifeof mineI amallthetimeseeing free of.... of that be other I I was to that once It'slikean pictures thought glad least dear. At a that it's 'Rene never ceases ... and ache, pain partly. yourfault, if I hadn't seen ForI wouldn't thiswilddesire have thisterrible, now, you perhaps,
that time in Chicago.... (145) never longed for anything before; and I have wanted many things in my life....

The body of the other brings about a severechange in Clare'sown body-image; aboutherwounded statewithin throughseeingIrene,Clarecomes to consciousness the white world,her "pain" of paucitycomesfrom and "pale[ness]." This recognition the loss of her own African-American femalebody in passingas white. The assuaging of these wounds and fulfillmentof "thisterrible,this wild desire"are possible through a materialreunion. In this way, Clarefiguresthe physicalityof Ireneas a cureto herown threatened body image.The whole,joyous,valuedAfrican-American femaleself annihilatedby Clare's father's brutalizingattacks,her aunts'self-serving exploitationof her labor,and her husband'sunwitting racialdenigrationof her is

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in the body of Irene. In addition, self-lovecan come actuallyseen as recoverable from love of Irene.17 Irene's answerto Clare's herdesirefor a femalesexuality erotictransference reveals connected to women of mixed ethnicity specifically and unattachedto men. Irene refusesto passon Clare's love to the male;afterreceivingClare's kiss, Irene"decided that she wouldn't,afterall, say anything to him [her father]about ClareKendry" (163). Her refusalto tell her fatherabout her meeting with Clare and her act of desireto preservethe kiss among women of withholding the kiss symbolizeIrene's mixed ethnicity,ultimatelykeeping it for herself.This desireflaresagain in Irene's destructionof Clare'sfirst letter to her. This letter emphasizesIrene'sconnection both to the African-American community and her own father.In reaction,Irene "torethe offending letterinto tiny raggedsquaresthat fluttereddown and made a smallheap in her blackcrpe de Chinelap.The destructioncompleted,she gathered them up, rose,and movedto the train's end. Standingthere,she droppedthem over the railingand watchedthem scatter,on tracks,on cinders,on forlorngrass,in rills female of dirty water"(178). Here, the "blacklap"represents African-American sexualityand the white letter fragments(the "smallheap")representthe phallic and whiteness. Irene refusesto define African-American female sexualityonly in relationto black men. She recognizes,if only unconsciously,that such a definition is complicit in a white beliefsystem. By tossing the paperscrapsoff the train,Irene shows her ability to resist Clare'slanguageof love when couched in love for the female father. This gesturespeaksof her unconsciousdesirefor anAfrican-American sexualitynot implicatedin white ideologiesabout blackwomen. hair.Clare's Claremirrorsthis desireonce she begins to fetishizeIrene's kissing of Irene's "dark curls"symbolizesher longing for a woman of mixed ethnicitywho sketchesa spectrumofwomen's consciouslyalliesherselfwith the blackrace.Larsen of hair.Clare's relationto the African-American communitythroughthe appearance hairis naturally her abilityto passforwhite as gold"(161), a tropeemphasizing "pale well as her racialmixture;Gertrude's hairwas clipt, and by some unfortunate "black means all the live curlinesshad gone from it" (167), a signifierof her denial of the racethrougherasureof the "livecurliness;" hair is dominated by "dark and Irene's curls"(194), an exteriortestament to her chosen race loyalty.Teresade Lauretis' readingof the femalebody as lesbianfetishwill open up these imagesof hair:
what the lesbian desires in a woman ("the penis somewhere else") is indeed not a penis but a part or perhaps the whole of the female body, or something met-

related to it, suchas physical, or emotional attributes, intellectual, onymically

stance, attitude, appearance, self-presentation.... [T]he fetish is at once what signifies her desire and what her lover desires in her. It is both an imaginary or
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whose in a subjective anda symbolic scenario; meaning placement object, fantasy discourses and derives froma sociohistorical subcultural and context of cultural (228) representations. In her theory,de Lauretistriesto strip fetishismfrom its negativeconnotation as a male sexualperversionand re-associate it positivelywith women'sattemptsto possess a sign of the female body; de Lauretis' innovativetheory illuminatesLarsen's imaging of women of mixed ethnicity'slonging for and caressingof each other's desiresand bodies in Passing. The "dark curls"are "atonce what signifies [Irene's] what [Clare]desiresin her";they point to Irene's desireto alignherselfwith African Americansand Clare'sdesire for that desire. In the text'sterms, lesbian sexuality in Clareflaresin responseto a sign she readsas a craftedAfrican-American female femininitypossessedby a woman of mixed ethnicity. Similarly,Clare'skiss transformsIrene by allowing her to accessemotions and desiresnot usuallyavailableto her. BeforeClarekissesher, Irenedecidesthrougha community.Her fear logicalroutethat Clarecannotreturnto the African-American of blame,of being"responsible" this decision.Her point for Clare's choice, motivates of view mimics male perceptionof Clare.It is Brianwho originallydemandsthat IrenerejectClare.Yet,Irene's fearand self-regulation [s] slip awayafterClare"drop a kiss on her dark curls"(194). Emotion overwhelmsIrene, flooding her with "a suddeninexplicable onrushof affectionatefeeling"(194). The kiss itselfurgesIrene comto graspClare's two hands, reclaimingClareas partof the African-American munity ratherthan abandoningher. Irene'sdesire emergesin responseto Clare's own attractionto the fetish. Irene'sintense emotional reaction,passionatetouch, and declarationof Clare'sbeauty all affirmher unconsciousdesirefor the female body of mixed ethnicity. inhibit Irene's body itself Although storiesrepeatedly abilityto see Clare,Clare's Clare the see positivelyeven interrupts effect of those storiesand inspiresIreneto Fetishization facilitates this process.It movesIreneto recognizeClare's passionately. positiveembodimentof the blackin the body of mixedethnicity.ForIrene,at times, the fetish reposesin Clare's comportment: Itwasasif thewoman on theother sideof thetable... hadforhera fassitting backin thetall and wasstillleaning Clare cination, Kendry strange compelling. her with an airof indifShe sat shoulders carved the chair, sloping top. against ferent dim if the as her About clung assurance, arranged for,desired. suggestion
of polite insolence with which a few women are born and which some acquire with the coming of riches or importance. Clare, it gave Irene a quick prick of

fantasmatic "object," a cathected signifier, whose erotic meaning derives from its

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hadalways hadit. (161)

satisfaction to recall,hadn'tgot that by passingherselfoff as white. She herself

This scene sets up a parallelbetween Clare'sbodily text and the oral tales told about it. Both the bodily and oral texts are seductive;just as Irene's"fascination" fixeson Clare's body, so, in telling the stories,"thegirls"have difficulty"drag[ging] their Yet,the oraltexts,those "tantalizing away eagershiningeyes"fromone another. stories about Clare['s]" prostitution,emerge out of a supposed ground of knowlher about as insinuated edge by the way the girls "lookknowinglyat one another" (153). In counterpose, Clare'sbody itself, knowledge of which these stories are a word suggestiveof supposedlyfounded on, eludes Ireneas she calls it "strange," Clare's body'soperationoutside of the repeatedstoriestold about it. Seeing Clare's What brings Irene such body providesIrenewith a "quickprick of satisfaction." unexpectedpleasureis her memory that Clarepossessedher proud posturebefore it stands as a sign to passing;since this posture is "born"ratherthan "acquired," Ireneof African-American beautyin the woman of mixed ethnicity. Clare'seyes also stimulate Irene'sdesire. In her initial reactionto Clare, Irene revealsher unconsciousdesirefor and attractionto the AfricanAmericanin Clare; even beforeshe knowsClare's identity,Irenelocatesherbeautyin "thosedark,almost black, eyes,"which she will later explicitlydefine as not only "Negro eyes"but a featuretied to Clare's femaleancestry:"Yes, lovelinesswas absolute, ClareKendry's thanks to and laterhermother those which her beyondchallenge, eyes grandmother and fatherhad givenher"(161). EricSundquistunderscores the necessityof memory to the keepingaliveof culturalorigins:"The mythos of untraceable originsand unwritten-or rather, continually'rewritten'--textsput a premiumon remembering, on acts of consciousnessthat ground the racialnation and tie togetherits generations throughoutthe Africandiaspora" the text that affordsaccess (38). In Passing, to African-American origins is that of the female body of mixed ethnicity;in the act of looking, one can find a sign of beautytied to a distinctlyAfrican-American and femaleidentity.Through fixationon Clare's consciously eyes, Ireneremembers the link between Clare's her desirefor her and black eyes signifying grandmother, a sign, a text, that will lead her back to African-American ancestry. If the fetish signifiesa route to recapturing the past, it also disruptsdominant modes of thinking.Justasit destabilizes it underminesthe domipopularnarratives, nant mode of time, a centralmeans of Brian's of regulation Irene.For CherylWall, "Clare's 'Negro eyes'symbolizethe unconscious, the unknowable,the erotic, and the passive.In otherwords, they symbolizethose aspectsof the psycheIrenedenies

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within herself"(130). I agreewith Wall'sinterpretation of GClare's eyes, exceptthat I would say the eyes represent the suspensionof time ratherthan passivity: returned the looked herbrown eyes Again[Irene] politely up,andfora moment fellorwavered. stare of theother's never foraninstant black ones,which [Clare's] thewoman totreat Irene made alittle mental Shetried Ohwell,letherlook! shrug. to ignore andherwatching withindifference, Allherefforts butshecouldn't. her, What Still it, werefutile.Shestoleanother languorous strange glance. looking. (149-150). eyesshehad! By readingthis excerptin conjunction with the last long quotation, a number of intriguingrepetitionscome to the fore. Clare's body has a stillnesswhich is arresting for Irene;just as Clare's strange body which is "stillleaningback"has a "fascination and compelling"for Irenein the earlierpassage,so Clare's eyes languorous" "strange bind Irene's which are"stilllooking"and "never for an instantfell or wavered" gaze in the latterexcerpt.The repetitionof "still" delineationof with a gerundin Irene's Claresuggestsan active,in otherwordsintentional,fixedness aboutClare's body able to transport Clare's Ireneinto a suspendedtime. Too, Larsen describes eyesvariously mesmeric" as "hypnotic" "slow and and (209), "arresting" (150), (161), "languorous" (161), all indicatinga slowing down or suspensionof time and movement. As theoristClaudine Hermann explains:"Men'stime is, in effect, just another system, but the most frighteningof all, the one that deprivesyou of the present moment in the name of the futureand puts off the presentmoment indefinitelyby crushingit under the past and the future"(172). Accordingto Hermann, a patriarchaltime framerobs us of a sumptuoussense of the presentmoment. I suggest, time"and a viewing of it instead though, a refiningof what Hermanncalls "men's as a dominanttime linkedto men, whites, and capitalism. With such a redefinition, Irene'sluxuriatingin the moment with Claretakeson richermeaning:it refersto her eyes' functioning outside of a regulatedwhite, male, and economic form of time. As Hermannso nicely puts it, "therearewomen who sink into [the present moment], stretchand prolongit becausefor them it is an end in itself" (173). Such an extension of the presentis crucialto the disruptionof Irene'sdominant mode of seeing: "Lookingup at her, Irene'ssuspicionsand fearsvanished.There was no mistakingthe friendlinessof that smile or resistingits charm.Instantlyshe surrenderedto it and smiled too" (150). In both passages, time suspensionbroughton by of Clare the bodilyfetishleadsIrenefrom a negativeemotion and misinterpretation to a pleasurable thrillwith Clare's body and right readingof her. While manyliterary criticsreadLarsen's text as a validationof bourgeoisculture, about the sumptuousness of thesemomentsdefya numberof bourgeois expectations of women. Rather than pursuing heterosexualeroticism, standing as a sign her
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husband's wealth, and relatingto otherwomen only throughand becauseof men, in her new-foundversionof time, Ireneexperiences both herselfand Clareasfreeof male imperatives and immersedin erotic desire.Evidencethat their looking defies of women existsin the factthatClare's eroticstareforcesIrene bourgeoisexpectations to abandonher usualself-regulation, communion for thereby,allowing pleasurable between the two women. Yet, of course,these moments though prolongedare, at the same time, fleeting,as bourgeoisculturere-asserts itself in the foreground. One other fetish is crucialto Irene'sinteractionwith Clare:her associationof Clare'sbody with golden hues that she furtherconnects to the vaginal and oral. While originally, Clare beforeshe recognizes Clare's mixedethnicity,Ireneassociates with the colors "black," and "green" "scarlet," (148), afterIrenediscovers "ivory," Clare's she the color of the melon (149), her weds with identity, consistently gold, Clare's "goldenbowl of a hat"(220), and the "goldentea"in the teacup(219). These phraseslink mixed ethnicity (gold), vaginalshapes(melon, bowl, hat, and teacup), and oral consumption (melon, bowl, and tea). This unconsciousprocessemerges in Irene'sfirst lengthy physicaldescriptionof Clare after learningof her identity in which she remarksClare's"palegold hair."Like her comportment which she had that pale gold hair,"signaling it as possessedprior to passing, Clare "Always racialstatus (161). To intensifythe reader's yet anotherdefinitivefeatureof Clare's connection of Clarewith gold, Larsendescribesher as being "golden" (203), "fair and golden, like a sunlit day"(205), and "avital glowing thing, like a flame of red and gold" (239). The imagesof tea and teacupsfurthersymbolizeIrene's desireto definethe fetish of golden hues as themselvesdistinctlybelongingto the woman of mixed ethnicity, divorced from whiteness and maleness. Like Clare'sbody, the tea is describedas "golden."In contrast,the tea cups arewhite and have "agood old hoaryhistory," their ownership able to be traced from "the charming Confederates" to "Brian's black to Brian(222). Afterdwellingon Clare's great-great-grand-uncle" "astonishing and Irene smile" which sees as toward she men, (221), eyes" drops "caressing geared a tea cup, separating the "white" "Therewas a slight crash.On from the "golden": the floor at her feet lay the shattered cup. Darkstainsdotted the brightrug. Spread. The chatterstopped.Went on. Beforeher Zulenagatheredup the white fragments" an unoverboundaries,Irenearticulates (221). By letting the golden tea "Spread" consciouswish to reclaimClarefrom both white and male possessionakin to her earliermove of throwingthe white paperoff her blacklap. Thereby,Irenebelieves she can returnthe woman of mixed ethnicity to a distinctlyblackheritage,just as the tea, which was "golden,"becomes "dark" once spilled. In the phrase"agood old hoary history,"the phonic pun hoary/whore-ycoupled with the cup'sshape
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insinuatesthat the cup is a metaphorfor the historyof women of mixed ethnicity's sexuality,a sexualitypassedfrom white ownershipto black male ownership,from to Brian.The pun suggeststhatthe stereotype of mulattopromiscu"Confederates" is firstdeveloped a Southerners both white and black men; ity historydevelopedby it to justify the rapeof women of mixed ethnicity and black men continued it by mulattowomen as sexuallydeviantin their activesexualityoutside of representing This readingis furthersupportedby the doublenessinherentin the immarriage. of age teacupspassingfrom white men to black. It suggestsboth a sexualpassing of the mulattowomen among men and a passingthat confersownershipon black men by white men. In this reading,the breaking of the cup and consequentspillingof the teasignifies a releasing of the woman of mixedethnicity's fromthe boundsof whiteness sexuality and maleness.Only in this way could Ireneclaim Clarefor herself,be the objectof Clare'serotic gaze and the fetishizerof it. The word "Spread" emphasizesthat the tea escapesits boundednesswithin the smallspaceof the white tea cup. Irenehas a moment, if only unconscious,in which she refusesto define the woman of mixed a movesimilarto Clare's address" refusal to put a "return (143) on ethnicity's sexuality, the envelopesent Irene,yet anothervaginalimage accordingto McDowell (xxvi). In the text'sending,the regulation of vision and the phallicseemsto win out over lesbiandesireand the blackfeminine fetish.AfterJackBellewburstsinto a Harlem party to confront his wife about her racialpassing, Clareplummets to her death froma window.Thereareonly two overtcluesthe narrative offersto determinewho murderedClare:Irene's hand on Clare's armand Bellew'srapidrushtowardsClare. One of the majordebatessurroundingthe text revolvesaroundwho killed Clare. Most criticsvote for Irenebecauseof her seemingreliefat Clare's death,articulation of fearthatClaremight not be dead,and herinteriorstruggle with herselfconcerning her role in the eventsleadingup to Clare's An occasionalcriticreadsa suicide fall.'" in Clare's death (Larson85). No criticto this date has fingered JackBellewalone as the killer,most likelybecauseIreneherselfvehementlyopposesthe suggestionthat he might be a likely suspect.A number of criticsalso dismissthe ending as out of keepingwith the rest of the text. Deborah McDowell goes so far as to arguethat "Larsen 'dis'-closure, performsan act of narrative undoing or doing the opposite of what she has promised"(xxxi). My own readingof the text entire, however,providesevidence that the ending is continuous with Larsen's design in the rest of the text: it still concernswomen of mixed ethnicity'sown blindness to male culpabilityand men's investment in deathshows maintainingtheiridentitiesthroughwomen. Irene's responseto Clare's that Irenecan still only believea narrative in which women of mixed ethnicityare
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fall, Irenesees only her own motive for murguilty and men arenot. After Clare's der:her unprovedsuspicionthat Clareand Brianareengagedin a torridaffair.For Irene, a mulatto woman'suncontrollableviolence againsta promiscuousmulatto woman who stole her man is a tellabletale. In fact, it is a story told repeatedlyin smallvignettesin CarlVanVechten's Home To NiggerHeavenand Claude McKay's Harlem.Yet,given that Larsenclearlytakesissue with McKay'sand Van Vechten's images of mulatto women, why would she renounceher position and join in the usual excoriationof mulatto women at the last?More specifically,in a text that the discourseof blame of mulattowomen, revealingIrene's blindness denaturalizes to men'sactsof violenceand tendencyto indictwomen of mixedethnicityfor those violences, why would Larsenabandon this literaryaim and craft an ending that makes the woman of mixed ethnicity guilty and the white man innocent?And, if Irene's visionis undependable, invest the questionbecomeswhy would we as readers in Irene's view of herselfas complicit if not activein Clare's death? My own partialanswerto these questions is that Larsenprovides the textual means to come to another readingof the text, one that sees Bellew as guilty and Irene as innocent. Through a number of structuralrepetitions,Larsendoes point to Bellewas, at the least,a viablemurderer. That BellewcausesClareto fall out the window due to his aggressionis hinted at by the fact that Clare'sreactionto her father's cornerof the couch,"and, indeed, bellowingis to move "tothe farthermost when Bellewhimselfbellowsupon entranceto the party"shegot up fromher chair, (238). More damning evidence is availablein backing a little from his approach" the repeatedimagesof men'sviolent gestures.Since the mere hint that the woman of mixed ethnicity might be expandingher boundariesmotivates these gestures, Clare's reclamationof an African-American identitywould certainlyqualifyas another potentialinstigatorof male aggression. thereis the repeatedevent of Further, Irene's from a of seeing phallicpoint view, and, therefore,blamingherselfor Clare for men'soutbursts.Given this constellationof details, Irene'sblaming of herself for Clare's death and her certaintythat Bellew didn'tkill Clarearesuspect at best. Such a conjunctionis standardfor Ireneand, thereby,unbelievable.Bellew should be an equalsuspectwith Ireneand ClarepreciselybecauseIrenecan'tsee or crafta story about that possibility.Irene's potentialinnocencelies in the fact that she fixes on rejectingClare multiple times in the text, but unmediated communion with the fetishizedbody, including touch, vanquishesthat logical decision.The ending follows this patternto the extent that she desiresto rejectClareand reachesout and touches her, but readers arenot fully privyto Irene's next act. And, yet, certainlyLarsendoes not overtly revealthe murderer, and, so, such a readingonly increasesthe list of suspectswithout solving the case. For,afterall,
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lesbiandesirenot phallicvision wins out in the end. It does not win out becauseof the eventswithin the plot but ratherbecauseof the kind of desirethe ending evokes in the reader. In Passing, the phallicand the male striveto definewomen of mixed in constrained and limited ways, assertingauthorityover them to create ethnicity order.In Passing, women of mixed ethnicity'slesbiandesireescapessuch definitive evenas it is "compelterms.It defiesexplanation, and "inexplicable" being "strange" and ling."It flourishes only when women of mixedethnicityescapemen'sregulation definition of them. In turn, lesbiandesireleadsto a focus on the physicalityof the woman of mixed ethnicity'sbody and its ties to the African-American community. And, it interruptsthe usualstoriestold about women of mixed ethnicity. Larsenshapes the end of the text as a lesbian ending, not with what happens but with the effect on the readerof what happens. Larsenpositions the readerto occupy Irene's position and feel her lesbiandesire.The ending urgesthe readerto come back againand again to Clare'sbody beforethe window, to dwell upon her, to desireknowledgeabout her, and to revelin the pleasureof not knowing. That is preciselythe position that Ireneis in throughoutthe text. The text venturesthat desire lesbiandesireis, asJudithRoofexplains,"thedesirefordesire" andheterosexual "thedesirefor mastery" (108-109). As such, the text'sending in irresolutionevokes lesbiandesire.No finalanswers womanareforthcoming, abouttheAfrican-American thus frustrating any potential masteryover or phallicvision of the text. By killing off Clarein an ambiguousfashion, Larsenthwartsany final knowledgeabout the two female characters of her text, which leavesthe reader,afterall, like Clareand female body in a lesbianfashion. + Irene,desiringthe African-American
Notes

I wouldliketo thankthe twoanonymous Review Mountain of The reviewers Rocky I am In and revisions. Literature for for their addition, ofLanguage perceptive suggestions on to Suzanne for critical Estella Lisa Tatonetti and Lauter, Juhasz, commentary grateful thisessay at crucial in its stages development.
2 SeeJames Man(1912, 1927); Weldon The Johnson, ofan Ex-Colored Autobiography is Confusion Francis There White, Fauset, Jessie (1924)andPlumBun(1929);Walter Van Carl and Home To Harlem Vechten, (1926);Claude (1928); Flight McKay, Nigger Heaven (1926).

in I began thisessay my language. byputtingtheword"mulatto" 3I wantto clarify I wishto emphasize termfora number marks. is a problematic thatmulatto quotation of reasons. It derives fromwhitesociety's in animal Americans of African definition racist in a bloodquantum thatracial of racethatsuggests version terms, participates heritage canactually be quantified, andreferences a highlyconstructed Therefore, literary figure.
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I use the words "mulattofemale character" and "mulattowoman/women"only to invoke a sense of the constructedness of this of raceitself,whetherwhite or black, the literariness central to the and the so of blood and race particularfigure, myths betrayal figquantum ure.When I discussgenerallywomen with a complex backgroundthat includes ancestral as well as culturalties to both whites and AfricanAmericans,I will use the term women of mixed ethnicity.With this phrase,I also wish to emphasizethat some textualimages, including those of Ireneand Clare,revealthe racialand culturalcomplexityof women ratherthan simply their allegianceto one raceor the other. Finally,I use the terms black and African-American to referto writers,traditions,or characters that consciouslyacand from draw African-American knowledge ancestry,identity,community,and culture, race as a choice rather than a biologicalimperative.For a discussion thereby,emphasizing of the word mulatto, see SamiraKawash,Dislocatingthe ColorLine:Identity, Hybridity, and Singularity in African-American Literature (5).
4Theorists and literarycriticswriting on queernessand racetogetherhave noted the

complex way homophobia operatesin the black community to affirmAfrican-American race consciousness.Phillip BrianHarperpoints out that, at times, within black communities, effeminacyand gay male sexualityareconflatedand, further,linked with whiteness, while masculinityand heterosexuality are inextricably combined to stand as signs of blackness.Similarly, Michael Cobb revealsthat this tendency to use sexualand gender markersto define raceinflectedthe Harlem Renaissance period. In Cobb'sreading,even those Harlem Renaissance writerswho tried to challengecontemporarynotions of race, ultimately,ended up relayingthe New Negro movement'sanxietyabout homosexualityby affirmingthat one could not be black and homosexualand still live. While the idea that Harlem in the 1920s was sexuallyliberatory, even in regardto homosexuality,has become the stuff of legends, LillianFadermanclaims that the black community of Harlem actually mirroredthe generalhomophobia dominant within white culture.Faderman suggests that the negativerepresentations of lesbiansgeneratedin the Harlem Renaissance capture a generaldis-easewith lesbiansin the black community,even a "gentlecontempt"for them. Clearly,heterosexismand homophobia inform the many affirmations of blackness in Harlem Renaissance discourseas blacksare linked to normativeforms of heterosexuality and gender.As Siobhan B. Somervillepoints out, by the 1920s in Americansociety generally, transgression againstgendernorms was conceived as transgressions against heterosexual norms.Therefore,one can readthe desireto affirmblacknessby provingthat the characters operatewithin strict conventionalgenderand sexualnorms as expressive of an anxiety,howeverrepressed, about homosexualityand of a desireto expel this threat. (See Harper 11-12; Cobb 337; Faderman69-70; and Somerville54-55.) invisiblewomen, unseen Invisible Man, there are Larsen's 5 Long beforeRalph Ellison's and unseeing. In Invisible Man, Ellison suggeststhat no one sees his unnamed narrator preciselybecauseraciststereotypesinterferewith the onlooker'sperceptionof him. Too, the unnamed narrator is unable to see his own manipulationby others and their versions of what blackmeans. Likewise,in Passing, Larsenshows that no one can see her two main Clareand Irene,becausepopularideas about race,sex, and gendermake the characters, onlooker blind to these women. Moreover,due to the discourseof blame surrounding
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them, Clareand Ireneare unawareof the infractionscommitted againstthem by African Americansand whites alike.
6 For example,Ann duCille questions McDowell'slesbianreadingbut repeatsMcDowell'smodel of splitting blackfemale sexualityfrom race.For duCille, Clarerepresents the erotic black femaleself and Irenethe racialblack female self (103-105). Jacquelyn McLendon repeatsthis idea with a twist. In McLendon's erotic reading,Clarerepresents desireto kill Clareis a desireto destroysimultaneouslyher internalsexualityand Irene's ized racismand her sexualizedbody. Such a readingmakes Clare's body itself as well as Irene'sinterestin Claresigns of racism(103-109). David BlackmorerepeatsMcDowell's readingof lesbiandesirewithout revision(475-476).

mother'soriginalchoice text, the African-American 7 In a slight twist, in Johnson's of the unconventionalroute lands her son in a trianglewherewhite people signify the scornedpossibility,firsta white man and, later,a white woman. In contrast,AfricanAmericanmen fighting on behalfof blacksfor the political causeof racialequalityrepresent the positive choice within the triangleof desire.
8 For an excellentanalysisof how the "colorline" is a fiction and, yet, one with dramatic consequencesfor materiallives, see Kawash(5-13, 20-21).

them basedon the 9 My own approachto JessieFausetand Nella Larsendifferentiates rhetoricaluse of African-American women within their texts. For a quite differentaccount of Fausetand Larsen,one that makesthem equalsin positivelyportraying African-American women and originatorsof tests imagingAfrican-American femalesensuality,see Ann duCille (86-109). racialheritagein this way: "No, I ancestryand herself,explainingthe no-name narrator's am not white, but you-your fatheris one of the greatestmen in the country-the best blood of the South is in you-." Such languageindicatesthe mother'sinternalizedracism as she implicitly identifiesherselfas the inferiorto men like her lover and her own son who aresupposedlyinfusedwith the "bestblood" (Johnson 12). " As a censureof African-American women'spursuitof careersin white society,the offersa decided negativeversionof causality: servitudeto an plot of Thereis Confusion illusion about whites bringsabout both African-American women'ssense of vocation and, what the text definesas, female masculinity.Obviously,if African-American women's vocationalaspirations and masculinitydevelop only in relationto a false realityregarding whites, they stand as negativeproductsfor Fausetof a warpedwhite value system. In Plum Bun, the main female character's choice of whitenessvirtuallykills off the African-American father.When Angelaescortsher mother to a whites-onlyhospital after she faintswhile they areon a shopping spreeand passingfor white, Junius, the admitted of the family,masquerades as the two women'schauffeur-precisely the role "patriarch" he performedin the employmentof a white actress-in ordernot to endangerhis wife's
12

white heritageand the son'sfatheroverAfrican-American 10The motherhierarchizes

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accessto health care.His subsequentexile from the hospitalbecauseof his raceand job status, however,leaveshim subjectto the harshelements outdoors, resultingin his death. In contrast,Peterclaims masculinityby establishingautonomy not only from whites but from African-American women: "No one but himself, not even Joanna,should his He meant to be a successfulsurgeon,a responsiblehusbandand father,a captain ship. self-reliantman."The phrase"captain his ship"ties togetherautonomy,power,ownership, maleness,and profession,while the overt denial of Joanna's power over him marksa break from both his own recentpast and his familyhistory (Fauset,There is Confusion 292).
14 McKaydescribesRose as "mov[ing]down on [Jake]like a panther,swinging her hips in a wonderful,rhythmicalmotion. She sprungupon his neck and broughthim down" and Miss Suzy and Miss Curdyas equallypredatory: "Tight-faced,the men seemed only interestedin drinkingand gaming, while Suzy and Miss Curdy,guzzlinghard,grew uglier. A jungle atmospherepervadedthe room, and, like shamelesswild animalshungry for raw meat, the femalessavagelysearchedthe eyes of the males"(McKay 149).
15 For those who like their interpretations of lesbiandesirebackedup with biographical proof of concernwith this experience,Thadious Davis bluntly statesthat "Larsen frequentlyassociatedwith a literaryand theatercrowd that includedlesbians,homosexuals, and bisexualswho were open in their sexualpreferences" (325). In addition, Larsen's friendsVan Vechten and Dorothy Petersenwere both bisexual,although Petersendid not proclaimherselfbisexualuntil afterthe publicationof Passing(325).

13

6 Through her work with census reports,Thadious Davis venturesa fascinatingreadown life history.Her research own nuclearfamilyhad a revealsthat Larsen's ing of Larsen's racialsecret:the African-American in orderto commune white for father/husband passing with the white mother/wife.Too, Davis speculatesthat Larsen was banishedfrom the family to a boardingschool due to her darkerskin color (23-48).

17 and MountainReviewof Language Thanks to the anonymous reviewerof TheRocky Literature who suggestedthat this idea about the relationshipbetween fetishizationand self-lovebe developed. Wall hedges a bit in readingthe ending, stating that a "psychological suicide, if not 18 a murderer, Irenetoo has played the game of passingand lost" (131). Yet, since this is the only weighing-in on the subjectof the ending, it supportsIreneas the murderer over and above any of the other characters. Disappointingly,Cutter'sconclusion that Ireneis Clare's murderer seems at odds with her brilliantreadingof the text as "openand uncontainable,"since, at the very end of her own essay,she closes down preciselywhat is elusive about the text'sfinale (96). McDowell concursexplicitlywith Wall, connecting Irene's of Clareto her need to maintainlesbiandesireas the repressed "banish[ment]" (xxix). McLendon views Ireneas potentiallykilling Clare,the passingwoman, in orderto destroy her own internalizedraicism, the passingwoman within (109).

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