Losing “Touch”: The Sense of Belonging in Brit Bennett’s The Vanishing Half

Abstract

ABSTRACT Brit Bennett’s The Vanishing Half is an unconventional passing narrative in that it not only deals with both racial passing and gender transition but also escapes the tragic passing narrative structure. If traditional passing narratives often portray passing as a deception and a betrayal of racial belonging, neo-passing narratives tend to embrace fluidity in identity and belonging. This article, with its distinct focus on touch, argues that The Vanishing Half helps navigate the tension between traditional views and contemporary perceptions of identity and belonging. By weaving a thread of “touch” throughout the narrative, Bennett’s novel challenges a predominantly visible understanding of identity and emphasizes the ethical import of belonging to a shared past while moving beyond assuming a rigid, traditionally familial/familiar mode of belonging. Drawing on theories about touch, especially in Black feminist and queer theory, this article reveals the ways in which The Vanishing Half formulates the tactile as an essential way of knowing the self and the other – in place of the dominant modes of understanding identity and belonging – and demonstrates how touch crosses boundaries across time and space to connect and shape past, present, and future.