From Necessity to Possibility

Charles Cullum

doi:10.1177/2158244015618234

Abstract

This article applies theories of fragmented postmodern identity and Heidegger’s modes of existence and concept of historicality to the issue of passing and traces the treatment of that motif across six African American novels that move from the largely realistic perspective of the 19th century to the subjectivist perspective of the early 20th century. These novels thus foreshadow the postmodernist questioning of the basis of discrete personal identity. The article claims that, across these novels, the act of passing and its relationship to human identity through time and historical circumstance becomes problematized from a necessary tool for escaping slavery, and so sustaining identity in its most basic form as life itself, to a potential existential dilemma of identity as a matter of authenticity and possibility. The article further discusses whether the individual is constrained by his or her background, especially, by race itself, or is a totally free, ungrounded agent.

Highlights

At the same time, the issue of identity formation and cultural context has long been seen as fundamental to discussions of postmodernist literature and ethos
I claim that, over the course of these novels, the act of racial passing and its relationship to human identity through time and historical circumstance becomes problematized from a necessary tool for escaping slavery, and so sustaining identity in its most basic form as life itself to a potential existential dilemma of identity as a matter of authenticity and possibility
When Hannah reaches freedom in New Jersey, she chooses a life that is not racially ambiguous in any way, that is, she makes a clear choice of one side of the color line. She marries a Black minister who “has always been a free man” (Crafts, 2002, p. 246), settles into a community of African Americans, and “keep[s] a school for colored children” (Crafts, 2002, p. 244). This Heideggerian projection of her own possibilities, Hannah heals the postmodern-like fragmentation that has characterized her sense of self to this time by firmly acknowledging and accepting her African American heritage

Summary

Introduction

The issue of identity formation and cultural context has long been seen as fundamental to discussions of postmodernist literature and ethos. African American literature, racial passing, philosophy and literature, Martin Heidegger

Results

Conclusion