Passing: Identity and Interpretation in Sexuality, Race, and Religion

Published by New York University Press 2001

Passing

Identity and Interpretation in Sexuality, Race, and Religion

Edited by: Maria C. Sanchez and Linda Schlossberg

Volume 29 in the series Sexual Cultures

https://doi.org/10.18574/nyu/9780814786819.001.0001

Overview
Contents

About this book

Passing for what you are not--whether it is mulattos passing as white, Jews passing as Christian, or drag queens passing as women--can be a method of protection or self-defense. But it can also be a uniquely pleasurable experience, one that trades on the erotics of secrecy and revelation. It is precisely passing's radical playfulness, the way it asks us to reconsider our assumptions and forces our most cherished fantasies of identity to self-destruct, that is centrally addressed in Passing: Identity and Interpretation in Sexuality, Race, and Religion.
Identity in Western culture is largely structured around visibility, whether in the service of science (Victorian physiognomy), psychoanalysis (Lacan's mirror stage), or philosophy (the Panopticon). As such, it is charged with anxieties regarding classification and social demarcation. Passing wreaks havoc with accepted systems of social recognition and cultural intelligibility, blurring the carefully-marked lines of race, gender, and class.
Bringing together theories of passing across a host of disciplines--from critical race theory and lesbian and gay studies, to literary theory and religious studies--Passing complicates our current understanding of the visual and categories of identity.
Contributors: Michael Bronski, Karen McCarthy Brown, Bradley Epps, Judith Halberstam, Peter Hitchcock, Daniel Itzkovitz, Patrick O'Malley, Miriam Peskowitz, María C. Sánchez Linda Schlossberg, and Sharon Ullman.

Author / Editor information

Sanchez Maria C. :

Maria C. Sanchez is Assistant Professor of English and Comparative Literature at San Diego State University.Schlossberg Linda :

Linda Schlossberg is Lecturer and Assistant Director of Studies for the Women's Studies Program at Harvard University.

Reviews

Passing is a very useful contribution to the literature both on sexualities and the politics of identity generally...the analyses in Passing throw light not only on minority identities but also on more mainstream ones.

In Passing: Identity and Interpretations in Sexuality, Race, and Religion, editors Maria Carla Sanchez and Linda Schlossberg have assembled relevant cultural criticism by 10 scholars.

Carolyn Dinshaw,Director of The Center for the Study of Gender and Sexuality at NYU:
Wigs, men's suits, and shocking posthumous disclosures: such are some stereotypical elements of passing lives. But this rich and stimulating collection maps a more varied territory of passing&38212;with its invisible differences, sly performances, and ‘chameleonic blood,' its compelled betrayals, fears of infiltration, and deeply desired poses. Passing details the terrors of such border crossings and the threats they pose to ways of knowing, indeed to identity itself.

Topics

Frontmatter Publicly Available Download PDF	i
Contents Publicly Available Download PDF	vii
Introduction: Rites of Passing Linda Schlossberg Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
1 Telling Tales: Brandon Teena, Billy Tipton, and Transgender Biography Judith Halberstam Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	13
2 Passing Like Me: Jewish Chameleonism and the Politics of Race Daniel Itzkovitz Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	38
3 Whiteness Invisible: Early Mexican American Writing and the Color of Literary History María Carla Sánchez Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	64
4 Passing Lines Immigration and the Performance of American Identity Brad Epps Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	92
5 From Victorian Parlor to Physique Pictorial: The Male Nude and Homosexual Identity Michael Bronski Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	135
6 Slumming Peter Hitchcock Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	160
7 The “Self-Made Man” Male Impersonation and the New Woman Sharon Ullman Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	187
8 Mimesis in the Face of Fear: Femme Queens, Butch Queens, and Gender Play in the Houses of Greater Newark Karen McCarthy Brown Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	208
9 “The Church’s Closet” Confessionals, Victorian Catholicism, and the Crisis of Identification Patrick R. O’Malley Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	228
10 Moses’ Wilderness Tabernacle Miriam Peskowitz Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	260
Contributors Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	273

Language: English
Publisher: New York University Press
Audience: Professional and scholarly;

eBook

Published: August 1, 2001
ISBN: 9780814786819