Masks, Veils, and Invisibility: Racial Passing in Afro-American Literature

• Thesis title in Czech: Masky, závoje a neviditelnost: „Racial passing“ v afroamerické literatuře
• Thesis title in English: Masks, Veils, and Invisibility: Racial Passing in Afro-American Literature
• Key words: masky|závoje|neviditelnost|afroamerická literatura|„racial passing"|rasismus|bílá nadřazenost|Nella Larsen|Ralph Ellison|George Schuyler
• English key words: masks|veils|invisibility|Afro American literature|racial passing|racism|white supremacy|Nella Larsen|Ralph Ellison|George Schuyler
• Academic year of topic announcement: 2022/2023
• Thesis type: diploma thesis
• Thesis language: angličtina
• Department: Department of Anglophone Literatures and Cultures (21-UALK)
• Supervisor: Mgr. Pavla Veselá, Ph.D.
• Author: hidden - assigned and confirmed by the Study Dept.
• Date of registration: 08.09.2023
• Date of assignment: 11.09.2023
• Administrator's approval: approved
• Confirmed by Study dept. on: 11.09.2023
• Date and time of defence: 10.09.2024 00:00
• Date of electronic submission: 10.08.2024
• Date of proceeded defence: 10.09.2024
• Submitted/finalized: committed by student and finalized
• Opponents: doc. Erik Sherman Roraback, D.Phil.

Guidelines

The main objective of the thesis is to analyse the use of tropes such as masks, veils, and invisibility in relation to racial passing in selected mid-twentieth-century Afro-American novels. The argument is that the complicated process of assimilation into hegemonic society contributed to the overall notion of how African Americans have perceived their own identity, which resulted in the tropes already mentioned. The thesis shall explore works such as Invisible Man by Ralph Waldo Ellison, Black No More by George S. Schuyler and Passing by Nella Larsen. I will argue that these authors employed the said tropes to consciously present the problems of black people to the predominantly white and racist society. By this, I shall explore how they contributed significantly to understanding their own psyche and their "double conscious" existence, the notion developed by W. E. B. Du Bois.

References

Bibliography
Primary sources:
Ellison, Ralph Waldo. Invisible Man. New York: Vintage Books, 1995.
Larsen, Nella. Passing. New York: Penguin Classics, 2003.
Schuyler, George S. Black No More. New York: Dover, 2011.

Secondary sources:
Black, Daniel P. "Literary Subterfuge: Early African American Writing and the Trope of the Mask." CLA Journal 48, no. 4 (2005): 387-03. http://www.jstor.org/stable/44325281.
Delgado, Richard, Jean Stefancic, and Angela Harris. Critical Race Theory: An Introduction. New York: New York University Press, 2017. https://doi.org/10.18574/9781479851393.
Hobbs, Allyson. A Chosen Exile: A History of Racial Passing in American Life. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2014.
Joo, Hee-Jung Serenity. "Miscegenation, Assimilation, and Consumption: Racial Passing in George Schuyler's Black No More and Eric Liu's The Accidental Asian." MELUS 33, no. 3 (2008): 169-90. https://doi.org/10.1093/melus/33.3.169
Lerone, Bennett Jr. Before the Mayflower. New York: Penguin Books, 1993.
Lieber, Todd M. "Ralph Ellison and the Metaphor of Invisibility in Black Literary Tradition." American Quarterly 24, No. 1 (March 1972): 86-100. https://www.jstor.org/stable/2711916.
Mathews, Tayler J., and Glenn S Johnson. "Skin Complexion in the Twenty-First Century: The Impact of Colorism on African American Women." Race, Gender & Class 22, no. 1–2 (2015): 248–74. https://www.jstor.org/stable/26505337.
Trimmer, Joseph F. "The Grandfather's Riddle in Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man." Black American Literature Forum 12, no. 2 (1978): 46-50. https://doi.org/10.2307/3041594.
Wall, Cheryl A. "Passing for What? Aspects of Identity in Nella Larsen's Novels." Black American Literature Forum 20, no. 1/2 (1986): 97–111. https://doi.org/10.2307/2904554.
Wynter, Kevin. Critical Race Theory and Jordan Peele's Get Out. New York: Bloomsbury Academic, 2022.