Passing… An Introduction

“Passing insists on the fallacy of identity as a content of social, psychological, national, or cultural attributes, whether bestowed by nature or produced by society it forces us to pay attention to the form of difference itself.” – Samira Kawash

Taking inspiration from Kawash’s quote, the theme of the book club is passing. Our society is preoccupied with classifying and sorting people into categories in order to make them more legible. Legibility is significant for both official and unofficial purposes. In the context of the diaspora, legibility plays a significant role in the construction of one’s identity. Diasporic peoples are known to traverse multiple boundaries of identity to create new meanings and/or challenge pre-existing ones; the act of passing puts into question as well as reinforces the boundaries of identity. Through an engagement with Nella Larsen’s novel Passing, participants of the book club will investigate the significance of categories in the construction of the self. In addition, the group will also focus on the ontology of identity categories and their construction.