The Quest for a Black Female Identity in Nella Larsen's "Quicksand"

Seminar paper from the year 2004 in the subject American Studies - Literature, grade: 1,0, Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (Seminar für Englische Philologie), course: Jazz in America, language: English, abstract: Nella Larsen's Quicksand was published to critical acclaim in 1928 and is saidto be one of the key texts of the Harlem Renaissance era. Larsen herself was ofDanish-Carribean ancestry and was highly interested in issues of racialidentity, especially as they relate to being female. For that reason one shouldnot be surprised that Quicksand focuses on the protagonist's struggles towardselfhood, her attempts to find her place in the world as a woman who isconsidered neither white nor black.The child of a Danish mother and a black West Indian father, a socalled"mulatto", Helga Crane finds herself outside of the black as well as thewhite world, fully comfortable in neither one nor the other. During herunhappy childhood she learns to regard her skin color with hatred and selfloathing,resulting in a deeply rooted sense of insecurity about her blacknessand mixed heritage, which continues to be felt all her life. Internalized (white)stereotypes about black womens´ promiscuous, "primitive" and immoralsexuality lead Helga to fear and repress her sensuality and female desires. Asshe detests and completely denies these emotions she is incapable ofdeveloping an identity as a woman either.In this seminar paper I will argue that Nella Larsen's Quicksand isabout Helga Crane's search for a black female identity which she will fail tofind. Further, my aim is to demonstrate how intimately connected race andgender oppressions are, since imposed definitions of blackness andwomanhood complicate Helgas search for her personal identity as a blackwoman.As Quicksand has a geographical symmetry to it, I will follow thispattern in my analysis. It starts out in the South in Naxos where Helga works asa teacher, then moves on to Chicago and Harlem, from there it