Obligatorisk kvalifiseringsoppgave i ENG4373 – Multicultural American Literature, vår 2012.
Both in Nella Larsen’s Passing and Octavia E. Butler’s Kindred
– albeit in very different ways – an historical, asymmetrical cross-racial
sexual union is an indispensable basic factor for their respective narrative developments:
In Passing, a core theme, the
possibility of being able to “pass” from being considered black to being
considered white, hinges on a sufficient dilution of visible outward signs of
blackness; in Kindred, the inception
of the hereditary line of the main protagonist depends on a sexual relation
between a white slave owner and a black slave – a relation she is transported
through time to make sure comes about, whereby to save herself.
