Title: "Home to Harlem, away from Harlem": transnational subtexts in Nella Larsen's Quicksand and Claude McKay's Home to Harlem
Source document: Brno studies in English. 2014, vol. 40, iss. 2, pp. [109]-121
Extent
[109]-121
-
ISSN0524-6881 (print)1805-0867 (online)
Persistent identifier (DOI): https://doi.org/10.5817/BSE2014-2-7
Stable URL (handle): https://hdl.handle.net/11222.digilib/131922
Type: Article
Language
License: Not specified license
Notice: These citations are automatically created and might not follow citation rules properly.
Abstract(s)
Heeding Brent Hayes Edwards 2003 call to re-examine African American writings of the early twentieth century within the context of emergent transnational sentiments, this article explores the literary depictions of transmigrant characters in Nella Larsen's Quicksand (1928) and Claude McKay's Home to Harlem (1928). Written and set during the volatile interwar years, Quicksand and Home to Harlem complicate and expand upon Randolph Bourne's "Trans-National America" (1916) and Alain Locke's "Harlem" (1925) by exploring how the transnational experience of moving away from, into, and between communities transforms existing identity concepts and creates spaces for the generation of self-definitions that are not bound by traditional notions of national and racial belonging.
References
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[2] Bourne, Randolph (1964) "Trans-National America." In: Resek, Carl (ed.) War and the Intellectuals: Collected Essays, 1915–1919. New York: Harper, 107–123.
[3] Davis, Thadious M (1994) Nella Larsen, Novelist of the Harlem Renaissance: A Woman's Life Unveiled. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press.
[4] Doyle, Laura (2005) "Transnational History at Our Backs: A Long View of Larsen, Woolf, and Queer Racial Subjectivity in Atlantic Modernism." Modernism/modernity 13 (3), 531–559. | DOI 10.1353/mod.2006.0058
[5] Du Bois, W.E.B. (1995) "The Color Line Belts the World." In: Lewis, David (ed.) W.E. B. Du Bois: A Reader. New York: Holt, 42–43.
[6] Du Bois, W.E.B. (1996) The Souls of Black Folks. New York: Penguin.
[7] Du Bois, W.E.B. (1928) "Two Novels: Nella Larsen, Quicksand & Claude McKay, Home to Harlem." Crisis 35, 202.
[8] Edwards, Brent Hayes (2003) The Practice of Diaspora: Literature, Translation, and the Rise of Black Internationalism. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
[9] Fishkin, Shelley Fisher (2005) "Crossroads of Cultures: The Transnational Turn in American Studies: Presidential Address to the American Studies Association, November 12, 2004." American Quarterly 57 (1), 17–57. | DOI 10.1353/aq.2005.0004
[10] Gates, Henry Louis Jr. (1988) "The Trope of a New Negro and the Reconstruction of the Image of the Black." Representations 24, 129–155. | DOI 10.2307/2928478
[11] Hutchinson, George (2007) "An End to the Family Romance: Nella Larsen, Black Transnationalism, and American Racial Ideology." In: Campbell, James, Mathew Guterl, and Robert Lee (eds.) Race, Nation, and Empire in American History. Chapel Hill, NC, North Carolina University Press, 55–72.
[12] Larsen, Nella (1987) Quicksand. In: McDowell, Deborah (ed.) Quicksand and Passing. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1–142.
[13] Locke, Alain (1925a) "Enter the New Negro." Survey Graphic 6 (6), 631–634.
[14] Locke, Alain (1925b) "Harlem." Survey Graphic 6 (6), 628–630.
[15] Locke, Alain (1935) "Values and Imperatives." In: Kallen, Horace M. and Sidney Hook (eds.) American Philosophy Today and Tomorrow. New York: Lee Furman, 312–333.
[16] Locke, Alain (1942) "Minority Issues in American Democracy" In: Locke, Alain and Bernhard J. Stern (eds.) When Peoples Meet: A Study in Race and Culture Contacts. New York: Progressive Education Association, 328–342.
[17] Lowney, John (2000) "Haiti and Black Transnationalism: Remapping the Migrant Geography of Home to Harlem." African American Review 34 (3), 413–429. | DOI 10.2307/2901381
[18] Lunde, Arne and Anna Westerstahl Stenport (2008) "Helga Crane's Copenhagen: Denmark, Colonialism, and Transnational Identity in Nella Larsen's Quicksand." Comparative Literature 60 (3), 228–243. | DOI 10.1215/-60-3-228
[19] McKay, Claude (2005) "A Negro to His Critics." In: Parascandola, Louis (ed.) Look for Me all Around You: Anglophone Caribbean Immigrants in the Harlem Renaissance. Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 299–305.
[20] McKay, Claude (2003) Banjo: A Story Without a Plot. London: X Press.
[21] McKay, Claude (2000) Home to Harlem. London: X Press.
[22] Stephens, Michelle A. (1998) "Black Transnationalism and the Politics of National Identity: West Indian Intellectuals in Harlem in the Age of War and Revolution." American Quarterly 50 (3), 592–608. | DOI 10.1353/aq.1998.0033
[23] Stephens, Michelle A. (2005) Black Empire: The Masculine Global Imaginary of Caribbean Intellectuals in the United States, 1914–1962. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.
[24] Wall, Cheryl A. (1986) "Passing for What? Aspects of Identity in Nella Larsen's Novels." Black American Literature Forum 20, 97–111. | DOI 10.2307/2904554
[2] Bourne, Randolph (1964) "Trans-National America." In: Resek, Carl (ed.) War and the Intellectuals: Collected Essays, 1915–1919. New York: Harper, 107–123.
[3] Davis, Thadious M (1994) Nella Larsen, Novelist of the Harlem Renaissance: A Woman's Life Unveiled. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press.
[4] Doyle, Laura (2005) "Transnational History at Our Backs: A Long View of Larsen, Woolf, and Queer Racial Subjectivity in Atlantic Modernism." Modernism/modernity 13 (3), 531–559. | DOI 10.1353/mod.2006.0058
[5] Du Bois, W.E.B. (1995) "The Color Line Belts the World." In: Lewis, David (ed.) W.E. B. Du Bois: A Reader. New York: Holt, 42–43.
[6] Du Bois, W.E.B. (1996) The Souls of Black Folks. New York: Penguin.
[7] Du Bois, W.E.B. (1928) "Two Novels: Nella Larsen, Quicksand & Claude McKay, Home to Harlem." Crisis 35, 202.
[8] Edwards, Brent Hayes (2003) The Practice of Diaspora: Literature, Translation, and the Rise of Black Internationalism. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
[9] Fishkin, Shelley Fisher (2005) "Crossroads of Cultures: The Transnational Turn in American Studies: Presidential Address to the American Studies Association, November 12, 2004." American Quarterly 57 (1), 17–57. | DOI 10.1353/aq.2005.0004
[10] Gates, Henry Louis Jr. (1988) "The Trope of a New Negro and the Reconstruction of the Image of the Black." Representations 24, 129–155. | DOI 10.2307/2928478
[11] Hutchinson, George (2007) "An End to the Family Romance: Nella Larsen, Black Transnationalism, and American Racial Ideology." In: Campbell, James, Mathew Guterl, and Robert Lee (eds.) Race, Nation, and Empire in American History. Chapel Hill, NC, North Carolina University Press, 55–72.
[12] Larsen, Nella (1987) Quicksand. In: McDowell, Deborah (ed.) Quicksand and Passing. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1–142.
[13] Locke, Alain (1925a) "Enter the New Negro." Survey Graphic 6 (6), 631–634.
[14] Locke, Alain (1925b) "Harlem." Survey Graphic 6 (6), 628–630.
[15] Locke, Alain (1935) "Values and Imperatives." In: Kallen, Horace M. and Sidney Hook (eds.) American Philosophy Today and Tomorrow. New York: Lee Furman, 312–333.
[16] Locke, Alain (1942) "Minority Issues in American Democracy" In: Locke, Alain and Bernhard J. Stern (eds.) When Peoples Meet: A Study in Race and Culture Contacts. New York: Progressive Education Association, 328–342.
[17] Lowney, John (2000) "Haiti and Black Transnationalism: Remapping the Migrant Geography of Home to Harlem." African American Review 34 (3), 413–429. | DOI 10.2307/2901381
[18] Lunde, Arne and Anna Westerstahl Stenport (2008) "Helga Crane's Copenhagen: Denmark, Colonialism, and Transnational Identity in Nella Larsen's Quicksand." Comparative Literature 60 (3), 228–243. | DOI 10.1215/-60-3-228
[19] McKay, Claude (2005) "A Negro to His Critics." In: Parascandola, Louis (ed.) Look for Me all Around You: Anglophone Caribbean Immigrants in the Harlem Renaissance. Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 299–305.
[20] McKay, Claude (2003) Banjo: A Story Without a Plot. London: X Press.
[21] McKay, Claude (2000) Home to Harlem. London: X Press.
[22] Stephens, Michelle A. (1998) "Black Transnationalism and the Politics of National Identity: West Indian Intellectuals in Harlem in the Age of War and Revolution." American Quarterly 50 (3), 592–608. | DOI 10.1353/aq.1998.0033
[23] Stephens, Michelle A. (2005) Black Empire: The Masculine Global Imaginary of Caribbean Intellectuals in the United States, 1914–1962. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.
[24] Wall, Cheryl A. (1986) "Passing for What? Aspects of Identity in Nella Larsen's Novels." Black American Literature Forum 20, 97–111. | DOI 10.2307/2904554