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Passing: Identity and Interpretation in Sexuality, Race, and Religion
Passing for what you are not--whether it is mulattos passing as white, Jews passing as Christian, or drag queens passing as women--can be a method of protection or self-defense. But it can also be a uniquely pleasurable experience, one that trades on the erotics of secrecy and revelation. It is precisely passing's radical playfulness, the way it asks us to reconsider our assumptions and forces our most cherished fantasies of identity to self-destruct, that is centrally addressed in Passing: Identity and Interpretation in Sexuality, Race, and Religion.
Identity in Western culture is largely structured around visibility, whether in the service of science (Victorian physiognomy), psychoanalysis (Lacan's mirror stage), or philosophy (the Panopticon). As such, it is charged with anxieties regarding classification and social demarcation. Passing wreaks havoc with accepted systems of social recognition and cultural intelligibility, blurring the carefully-marked lines of race, gender, and class.
Bringing together theories of passing across a host of disciplines--from critical race theory and lesbian and gay studies, to literary theory and religious studies--Passing complicates our current understanding of the visual and categories of identity.
Contributors: Michael Bronski, Karen McCarthy Brown, Bradley Epps, Judith Halberstam, Peter Hitchcock, Daniel Itzkovitz, Patrick O'Malley, Miriam Peskowitz, Mar�a C. S�nchez Linda Schlossberg, and Sharon Ullman.
Identity in Western culture is largely structured around visibility, whether in the service of science (Victorian physiognomy), psychoanalysis (Lacan's mirror stage), or philosophy (the Panopticon). As such, it is charged with anxieties regarding classification and social demarcation. Passing wreaks havoc with accepted systems of social recognition and cultural intelligibility, blurring the carefully-marked lines of race, gender, and class.
Bringing together theories of passing across a host of disciplines--from critical race theory and lesbian and gay studies, to literary theory and religious studies--Passing complicates our current understanding of the visual and categories of identity.
Contributors: Michael Bronski, Karen McCarthy Brown, Bradley Epps, Judith Halberstam, Peter Hitchcock, Daniel Itzkovitz, Patrick O'Malley, Miriam Peskowitz, Mar�a C. S�nchez Linda Schlossberg, and Sharon Ullman.
283 pages, Hardcover
First published August 1, 2001
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About the author
María Carla Sánchez
6 books2 followersResearch Interests
Dr. Sánchez’s current research involves 19th century Mexican and Mexican American writing about war (namely, the war for independence from Spain, the US-Mexico War, the French War, and the Revolution). She is also working on three essays: on the intersection of critical discourses about women's popular fiction in the 19th century and now, especially as concerns "chick lit"; on Catharine Maria Sedgwick and finance; and on Herman Melville and finance.
Selected Publications
* American Sentiments: Mexico, the U.S., and the Feelings of Empire, in progress.
* Feeling Right: Harriet Beecher Stowe, Uncle Tom’s Cabin, and Literary Resurrection, in progress.
* “Once a Chick, Always a Chick: The Problem of Women’s Popular Fiction, Then and Now,” under review.
* Reforming the World: Social Activism and the Problem of Fiction in Nineteenth-Century America. Iowa City: U of Iowa P, 2008.
* “What the Archive Could Not Tell Me.” ELN 45.1 (2007): 57-66.
* “Immovable: Willa Cather’s Logic of Art and Place.” Western American Literature, 38.2 (2003): 117-130.
* “’Prayers in the Market-Place’: Women and Low Culture in Catherine Sedgwick’s ‘Cacoethes Scribendi.’” American Transcendental Quarterly 16.2 (2002): 101-113.
* Co-editor with Linda Schlossberg. Passing: Identity and Interpretation in Sexuality, Race, and Religion. New York: N.Y.U. P, 2001.
* “Whiteness Invisible: Early Mexican American Writing and the Color of Literary History.” Passing: Identity and Interpretation in Sexuality, Race, and Religion. Co-editor with Linda Schlossberg. New York: N.Y.U. P, 2001. 64-91.
* “Re-Possessing Individualism in Fanny Fern’s Ruth Hall.” Arizona Quarterly 56.4: 25-56.
Dr. Sánchez’s current research involves 19th century Mexican and Mexican American writing about war (namely, the war for independence from Spain, the US-Mexico War, the French War, and the Revolution). She is also working on three essays: on the intersection of critical discourses about women's popular fiction in the 19th century and now, especially as concerns "chick lit"; on Catharine Maria Sedgwick and finance; and on Herman Melville and finance.
Selected Publications
* American Sentiments: Mexico, the U.S., and the Feelings of Empire, in progress.
* Feeling Right: Harriet Beecher Stowe, Uncle Tom’s Cabin, and Literary Resurrection, in progress.
* “Once a Chick, Always a Chick: The Problem of Women’s Popular Fiction, Then and Now,” under review.
* Reforming the World: Social Activism and the Problem of Fiction in Nineteenth-Century America. Iowa City: U of Iowa P, 2008.
* “What the Archive Could Not Tell Me.” ELN 45.1 (2007): 57-66.
* “Immovable: Willa Cather’s Logic of Art and Place.” Western American Literature, 38.2 (2003): 117-130.
* “’Prayers in the Market-Place’: Women and Low Culture in Catherine Sedgwick’s ‘Cacoethes Scribendi.’” American Transcendental Quarterly 16.2 (2002): 101-113.
* Co-editor with Linda Schlossberg. Passing: Identity and Interpretation in Sexuality, Race, and Religion. New York: N.Y.U. P, 2001.
* “Whiteness Invisible: Early Mexican American Writing and the Color of Literary History.” Passing: Identity and Interpretation in Sexuality, Race, and Religion. Co-editor with Linda Schlossberg. New York: N.Y.U. P, 2001. 64-91.
* “Re-Possessing Individualism in Fanny Fern’s Ruth Hall.” Arizona Quarterly 56.4: 25-56.
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