Editing Nella Larsen (section)

===1929: ''Passing''===
{{main|Passing (novel)}} Larsen's novel&nbsp;''Passing''&nbsp; begins with Irene receiving a mysterious letter from her childhood friend Clare, following their encounter at the Drayton Hotel, after twelve years with no communication. Irene and Clare lost contact with each other after the death of Clare's father Bob Kendry, when Clare was sent to live with her white aunts. Both Irene and Clare are of mixed African-European ancestry, with features that enable them to pass racially as white if they choose. Clare chose to pass into white society and married John Bellew, a white man who is a racist. Unlike Clare, Irene passes as white only on occasion for convenience, in order be served in a segregated restaurant, for example. Irene identifies as a black woman and married an African-American doctor named Brian; together they have two sons. After Irene and Clare reconnect, they become fascinated with the differences in their lives. One day Irene meets with Clare and Gertrude, another of their childhood African-American friends; during that meeting Mr. Bellew meets Irene and Gertrude. Bellew greets his wife with a racist pet name, although he doesn't know that she is partially black.<ref name="Larsen2007">{{Cite book|title=Passing|last=Larsen|first=Nella|publisher=W.W. Norton & Company|year=2007|location=New York}}</ref>

Irene becomes furious that Clare did not tell her husband about her full ancestry. Irene believes Clare has put herself in a dangerous situation by lying to a person who hates blacks. After meeting Clare's husband, Irene does not want anything more to do with Clare but still keeps in touch with her. Clare begins to join Irene and Brian for their events in Harlem, New York while her husband is traveling out of town. Because Irene has some jealousy of Clare, she begins to suspect her friend is having an affair with her husband Brian. The novel ends with John Bellew learning that Clare is of mixed race. At a party in Harlem, she falls out of a window from a high floor of a multi-story building, to her death, in ambiguous circumstances. Larsen ends the novel without revealing if Clare committed suicide, if Irene or her husband pushed her, or if it was an accident.<ref name="Larsen2007" />

The novel was well received by the few critics who reviewed it. Writer and scholar [[W. E. B. Du Bois]] hailed it as "one of the finest novels of the year."<ref>Du Bois, W. E. B. (1929), "Passing", in ''The Crisis'' 36, no. 7. Reprinted in Larson, Nella. ''Passing'' (2007), ed. by Carla Kaplan. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, p. 85.</ref>

Some later critics described the novel as an example of the genre of the [[tragic mulatto]], a common figure in early [[African-American literature]] after the [[American Civil War]]. In such works, it is usually a woman of mixed race who is portrayed as tragic, as she has difficulty marrying and finding a place to fit into society.<ref>Pilgrim, David (2000). "The Tragic Mulatto Myth". Jim Crow: Museum of Racist Memorabilia. Ferris State University. Retrieved June 26, 2012.</ref> Others suggest that this novel complicates that plot by playing with the duality of the figures of Irene and Clare, who are of similar mixed-race background but have taken different paths in life. The novel also suggests attraction between them and erotic undertones in the two women's relationship.<ref name="AldrichWotherspoon2001">{{cite book|author1=Robert Aldrich|author2=Garry Wotherspoon|title=Who's who in Gay and Lesbian History: From Antiquity to World War II|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=giM73n_lca4C&pg=PA255|year=2001|publisher=Psychology Press|isbn=978-0-415-15982-1|pages=255–}}</ref> Irene's husband is also portrayed as potentially bisexual, as if the characters are passing in their sexual as well as social identities. Some read the novel as one of repression. Others argue that through its attention to the way "passing" unhinges ideas of race, class, and gender, the novel opens spaces for the creation of new, self-generated identities.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Szafran |first=Dani| date=June 21, 2021 |title=Color and Descriptors to see a Deeper Meaning in "Passing" |url=https://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1124&context=anthos |journal=Anthós |language=en |volume=10 |issue=1 |page=64 |doi=10.15760/anthos.2021.10.1.8 |access-date=18 March 2024|doi-access=free }}</ref>

Since the late 20th century, ''Passing'' has received renewed attention from scholars because of its close examination of racial and sexual ambiguities and [[Liminality|liminal]] spaces.<ref name="AldrichWotherspoon2001"/> It has achieved [[Canon (literary)|canonical]] status in many American universities.<ref>{{cite book|title=Passing|last=Kaplan|first=Carla|publisher=Norton|year=2007|editor-last=Larsen|editor-first=Nella|contribution=Introduction}}</ref>