After reading both The Sun Also Rises and The Garden of Eden by Ernest Hemmingway it is clear that there is a new kind of woman that is created in these novels.For example, Catherine is a completely different character than what we normally would see from a novel that started around 1946.During this time period women were expected to be pleasant homemakers, take care of their husbands, have children, and essentially be submissive.However Catherine cannot have children, she wants to make all of the decisions about her and David’s life, and she’s the one who takes control over the narrative.This combined with the fact that she has bisexual tendencies creates a template for what “the new woman” is turning into.For instance, one major change that has occurred in “the new woman” is her assertiveness and desire to be in control of the relationship rather than her submissive nature.A new woman pushed against the limits set by male-dominated society, especially as modeled in the plays of Norwegian Henrik Ibsen (1828 - 1906). "The New Woman sprang fully armed from Ibsen's brain," according to a joke by Max Beerbohm (1872 – 1956).“The idea of the new woman was also classified as an icon of changing gender norms which first emerged in the late nineteenth century. Less constrained by Victorian norms and domesticity than previous generations, the new woman had greater freedom to pursue public roles and even flaunt her "sex appeal," a term coined in the 1920s and linked with the emergence of the new woman. She challenged conventional gender roles and met with hostility from men and women who objected to women's public presence and supposed decline in morality. Expressing autonomy and individuality, the new woman represented the tendency of young women at the turn of the century to reject their mothers' ways in favor of new, modern choices.”This is seen a lot in The Garden of Eden with Catherine who is at the central of all the sexual relationships within the novel and could certainly be seen as the most perverse of the three characters.She loves being nude out in public at beaches, she explores a homosexual relationship with Marita and transforms herself into looking more like a man (dressing in men’s clothes and a boyish hair cut).Catherine would beprime example of the ideals that centered around the new woman of the 1920s and one of Hemingway’s favorite character types.
Harlem in the 1920s was a time of black empowerment, and a time for black culture to showcase the plethora of writers, artists and jazz musicians as homage to the beauty of African Americans.During this period Langston Hughes, one of the poster children for the Harlem Renaissance, said that "My seeking has been to explain and illuminate the Negro condition in America and obliquely that of all human kind,” in defense for his integral writing about racial issues and prejudices (418).However, while some may have been ready to embrace “afrocentricism” others were disguising their race in order to achieve perceived class/racial favor within society.
“Passing,” defined as a black person using their lighter skin color and features to give the illusion of being white, was certainly a hot topic within Harlem because it was seen as an abandonment of one’s culture and heritage.One of the most powerfully moving literary representations of passing has been Nella Larsen’s novel Passing depicting the friendship between Clare Kendry and Irene Redfield.While some critics have embraced this novel as a representation of sexual passing, meaning gay passing for straight, it is more accurate to focus on the importance of race and class divisions that passing creates within Irene’s imagined cultural community and the effects of intersectionality as the central focuses of the novel.These class and race divisions represent the cultural rifts that were affecting Harlem at the time of the renaissance and inspired Larsen’s desire to symbolize them in the novel as a hope of preventing Harlem suffering the same fate as Clare.
In order to address the discourse surrounding the idea of sexual passing as the central theme of the novel, Deborah McDowell’s introduction to the story must first be addressed.McDowell suggests that Irene’s description of Clare’s beauty is an “awakening of Irene’s erotic feelings for Clare,” especially with the amount of attention paid to her facial features:
Her lips, painted a brilliant geranium-red, were sweet and sensitive and a little obstinate…tempting mouth..And the eyes were magnificent! Dark…Arresting eyes, slow and mesmeric, and with for all their warmth, something withdrawn and secret about them… Ah! Surely! They were Negro Eyes! mysterious and concealing. (Larsen 161)
Though it is interesting to look at this as a sexual awakening, it is more accurate to look at description of her features as Larsen making a statement about race in relation to passing.All of the features described are traditionally used when talking about African beauty: full, deep red lips, and dark “Negro Eyes”.Irene is appreciating the beauty that reflects the passion she feels towards her cultural identity rather than sensuously devouring Clare’s beauty as an early form of homosexual desire for her.Larsen herself (pictured) who struggled a lot with the idea of passing because of her family’s attempt to pass for Dutch despite her inability to pass with them, is using this moment to glorify African beauty.Larsen then creates a bi-lateral tension within Clare’s beauty as she contrasts her traditionally black features with her white ones.Larsen describes Clare as also having eyes “set in that ivory face under that bright hair, there was something about them something exotic” (161).This juxtaposition of both Clare’s “whiteness and blackness” creates an image of Clare’s exotic unmatched beauty that makes her unattainable for Irene in a sense that Irene will never be able to pass for white as well as Clare does.This wild, untamed beauty was the inspiration for the casting of Nancy Cheryll Davis, in the role of Clare for a production of passing. (Who is pictured here)The racial duality between Davis’s mixed facial features creates the same feeling of exotic tension that Clare is famous for. However Clare’s “exotic” look rests upon the fact that Irene doesn’t have the ability to pass for white the way Clare does, both because of her physical features and because of her emotional connection to her racial heritage.
It is more likely that McDowell’s suggestion that “Irene’s is an account of Clare’s passing for white and related issues of racial identity and loyalty,” is true, rather than her view that“underneath the safety of that surface is a more dangerous story…of Irene’s awakening sexual desire for Clare” (XXVI).Since humans tend to create imagined communities amongst themselves in order to create a sense of belonging to something bigger than oneself, it is more likely that Irene would have actually felt the extreme racial loyalty mentioned and would have stopped at nothing to protect her community.As described between Irene and her husband, “it’s funny about ‘passing.’ We disapprove of it and at the same time condone it.It excites our contempt and yet we rather admire it.We shy away from it with an odd kind of revulsion, but we protect it” (Larsen 186).This idea applies to the feelings Irene has towards Clare’s passing, and there are plenty of times when she decides to protect Clare from her husband because Clare is a part of the black community even if she doesn’t always choose to acknowledge her “blackness.”Simultaneously when Irene fears that Clare has slept with her husband, Irene chooses to focus on the fact that Clare’s passing puts her outside of Irene’s imagined black community in order to justify her feelings of wanting to eliminate Clare from her life.
The class issues between Irene and Clare could also account for some of the tension that was found not only in the novel, but in the time period as a whole as well.Larsen makes it very clear within the novel that Clare is married to a wealthy, white, man whose status is solidified in the community.This juxtaposition of the two characters that are within the same race but have distinct class divisions between them creates the basis for Larsen’s argument that race and class comprise a larger tension that occurred during the Harlem Renaissance.
Similarly the class distinctions between Irene and Clare are important because they show the intersectionality between race, class, and gender.Irene will do whatever she can to preserve her middle-class status, so she insists on being “allowed to direct for their own best good the lives of her sons and her husband” (Larsen 234).The threat of the affair between her husband, the person who solidifies Irene’s right to middle-class status, and Clare shakes Irene’s unstable sense of security with the possibility of her single status.This gives Irene a desperate need to preserve what she has going for her.The overwhelming desire of wanting drives Irene to a breaking point that causes her to kill Clare.It is more feasible that Irene eliminates Clare’s ability to take away her lifestyle, rather than McDowell’s reasoning of eliminating Clare as a viable sexual option. If Irene wanted to be with Clare that badly she would be more upset over Clare’s death because it eliminates the only sexual interest she has.Instead it is more viable that the intersection of Irene’s feminine desire for a husband to provide her with stability, her racial desire for higher class status, and her class desire for maintenance of middle-class status is ultimately what drives Irene into kill Clare. Clare’s passing was ultimately the final catalyst for the racial tension between the two women that led to other issues of class/gender roles, and because race is the catalyst for the tension between the two women it is accurate to say that the discussion of racial identities is Larsen’s central focus of the novel.
Though sexuality may have played a role within the novel, especially if there was an affair occurring between Irene’s husband and Clare, there is no way for sexuality to account for all of the other complexities that Larsen touches on within the story.Instead it is evident that the central theme of passing is racial tension and the reactions it sparks towards issues of sexuality, gender, and class.Ultimately Larsen’s novel creates a prime example of what happens when different identities overlap to create a certain response to an event.In this way Larsen was certainly a trailblazer to the theories of intersectionality an
d what their effect on a person’s identity could be.
What do all four of these women have in common? They are all rebuked for the breeching of "typical" society and societal norms. These women all have "behaved badly" in the eyes of popular society and that's what makes them so deliciously interesting.
During the time of the Harlem Renaissance an actress, Josephine Baker (pictured), was also famously known for her exotic beauty and her love of all things fabulous.Her disregard for what was expected of women during that time period and her pride of being an African American actress contributed to her widespread success.It is no coincidence that Nella Larsen’s character Clare was famously described for her beauty and her lack of caring about societal norms and pressures. At the same time her potential sexual promiscuity/ambiguity draws a close parallel to Josephine Baker.In fact using Josephine Baker to inspire the role of Clare would be interesting because Josephine Baker had a very promiscuous sex life, which even included some women during her life time. This could correspond with the possibility of Clare and Irene having some sort of homosexual feelings for each other in the novel. Also early on in the book Clare is described as having a smile that was “just a shade too provocative for waiter,” implying that Clare has some sort of seedy, whorish past (Larsen 149).Baker was also able to bridge many gaps across gender lines, especially being the first performer to refuse performing to a segregated audience, and she was responsible for her own version of passing, in the sense of being given privileges that other black people at the time wouldn’t have had because of her popularity. Josephine Baker was more widely known for her fight against racial issues rather than her sexuality, and therefore it is understood that if Larsen based Clare on Baker, it would be for highlighting racial issues rather than sexual ambiguity.Finally given Baker’s celebrity status at the time of this novel it would not be unreasonable to believe that Clare was based off of Baker, especially in terms of creating a character that people really want to read about.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n4MqCcVXyQU&feature=related -> Baker singing/dancing the Cha Cha Cha, a showcase of her clear sexuality and use of it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wmw5eGh888Y -> playing on Baker's African roots and association with the sexuality that comes from being exotic.
Catherine begins a new chapter in crossing cultural norms because of her affinity for imitating masculinity. Ultimately she meets her fate within the Garden of Eden for her "wanting too much" power and creating her self deteriorating spiral into the depths of her sin. Catherine's obession with her transformation into an "other" that is dark skinned and fair haired is also meant to be seen as a way of explaining her sexual transgressions. By becoming more and more exotic Catherine is given permission to act outside of societal constraints with and explanation that she simply doesn't know any better. Catherine does create the foundation for others to step out of societal realms and explore an androgynous area where people can simply float "sexlessly" and do what makes them happy instead.
The path that these four women have paved is the perfect breeding ground for a new kind of woman who "does what she wants" and doesn't live by what is accepted by society.
Ladies and Gentleman I give you... GaGa
She's known for her crazy way of pushing every boundary imaginable but Lady GaGa holds a special place in all of our hearts. What is interesting about her is the fact that she couldn't be more white/un exotic in race but what she lacks in the former definitions of "exotic" she makes up for in her style. Some ask if she's a transvestite, while others think that she holds no gender/sexual standing. But Lady GaGa is essentially the product of what was created during the early 1900s.
I personally think that Lady GaGa is the embodiment of what we have been focusing on in this class, she is queer because of the way she defies definition and refuses to be identified by her sexual orientation.After she had disclosed that what got her into song writing was a bad break up with a male drummer she “later regretted disclosing her orientation, saying, "I don't like to be seen as somebody who is using the gay community to look edgy. I'm a free sexual woman and I like what I like. I don't want people to write that about me because I feel like it looks like I'm saying it because I'm trying to be edgy or underground."She had previously told a crowd at one of her concerts that her song "Poker Face" lyrically discusses fantasizing about a woman while being in bed with a man.” I think it is also interesting that Lady GaGa came onto the scene with a very eccentric style that helped her gain the fame that she has now attained.Now more and more I am seeing a softer side of GaGa that is interesting because I have associated her with being very loud and crazy in terms of style.
I think this goes back to the way that Josephine Baker crafted every body movement she used to ooze sex appeal or the way that Catherine carefully shaped the story of her, David, and Marita.I think that rather than looking at this women as people who have crossed cultural gender and sexual norms, it would be even more accurate to say that they are skilled artisans.Each of these women have created a persona for themselves and carefully chosen elements that will further project that image.I essentially look at them as works of art who are all working towards their own idea.Clare’s goal is to “pass” in order to have the status and power that she had always wanted.Catherine’s desire was to be able to explore life freely and to push herself outside the limits of society and just enjoy life without feeling pressured by “norms”.Josephine Baker wanted to be an entertainer and have the same star power that Lady GaGa now has today.All of these women have created steps for their successors to follow in hopes that they will create a new and more beautiful image than what proceeded their own.Those images are the representations of “Queer” and what it means to those individuals who are living it and not just experiencing it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ehJ4PB5o6cA -> Lady GaGa performance, you can't talk about this girl without watching her at least a little bit!
Thanks to You Tube for all my videos on Josephine Baker and Lady GaGa.
Josephine Baker photos:
http://open.salon.com/blog/lost_in_berlin/2009/09/04/is_obama_hitler_a_historical_fact_check_on_black_nazis
http://afamstud.intrasun.tcnj.edu/harlemrenaissance/obie2/achievements.htm
http://fascinatingpeople.wordpress.com/2008/07/30/the-muse-josephine-baker-1906-1975/
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This blog is the narration of our group's journey through our class on Queer Modernism and Literature. We have learned all things jazz from the Harlem Renaissance culture, loved despite class boundries in Maurice, and explored gender inversion on a trip to Eden. These are the responses, and further research that has been sparked by what we have been exposed to within the class. Feel free to ride along with us...
