A Comprehensive Playlist on the Double Passing in Nella Larsen's Novel

        Irene and Clare's Love Story 

by Abigail Hawthorne 

https://open.spotify.com/playlist/60eIpFU5SOOild5QxsxDBv?si=a3009cc4eeed42f8 

1. There She Goes by The La’s: Page 10-11, The scene where Irene is shopping. I chose this song because I think it is the perfect upbeat tune for a pretty, classy woman running errands. I imagine Irene weaving through the crowds with a basket on her arm, her hair done up and pretty while this plays in the background. It's a sweet notion to visualize.

2. Always Forever by Cult: Page 11-12, The scene where Irene faints. This scene is semi-dramatic and I think Always and Forever conveys the energy of this.

3. Pretty Girl by Clairo: Page 15-20, The scene where Irene is noticing Clare for the first time and commenting on her looks in her head. She then becomes embarrassed when she thinks Clare is doing the same to her. Self-consciousness overtakes her and she tries to talk herself out of it by saying “oh well! Let her look” to herself. Yet there are still underlying elements of her feeling exposed and on display. This is the essence of the song Pretty Girl. Girls trying to navigate the clumsy mess it is to love another girl in this platonically affectionate world we live in.

4. Seven by Taylor Swift: Page 20-48, The pages in which Irene and Clare are chatting and catching up. Seven is a song about a childhood friendship between two girls who were very close. This already is a perfect song for Irene and Clare, however, it goes a bit further when you hear the lyric “and I've been meaning to tell you I think your house is haunted, your dad is always mad and that must be why. I think you should come live with me and we can be happy and you won't have to cry or hide in the closet, and just like a folk song our love will be passed on.” Many believe the “hide in the closet” lyric is a reference to sexuality, and in this case it definitely is. Furthermore, Irene knew Clare’s father was abusive and so her saying or thinking all of this in regards to Clare is very fitting. I also believe Irene is/was very protective of Clare and would not hesitate to try and take her away from her toxic household. 

5. Backstabber by Kesha: Page 66, The scene where Irene meets Clare’s husband and he calls her “Nig.” This one hardly needs an explanation. The stomach-turning dread Irene must have felt when she realized the woman she loves is married to a scum bag such as John, I cannot imagine it. This song’s beat dropping the second the vile word leaves John’s lips would create great tension. 

6. Girls by Girl in Red: Page 80, This song is about a woman pushing down attraction to another woman. A lyric goes “afraid of what they'll say, so I’ll push them away.” Then at the end of page 80, Irene thinks to herself  “why after all worry about Clare Kendry?... She ought to never have gone.” This thought process coupled with the fact that she still refers to Clare by her maiden name points even more strongly to the love they share but refuse to acknowledge.  

7. Please Notice by Christian Leave: Chapter 4 (part 1) - Chapter 2 (part2), Clare is trying to get Irene to see her or even talk to her. Irene is resisting. Clare is feeling lonely and isolated from the woman she loves. Please Notice perfectly denotes these vibes. 

8. Real Love Baby by Father John Misty: Page 128, Irene and Clare start to spend a lot of time together and have a real friendship. This is wonderful for their hearts that know they love each other. 

9. You and Jennifer by bulow: Page 159, Irene first becomes suspicious of Brian and Clare and they have a small disagreement.

10. Girl by Salvia Palth: Page 164-172, The party scene. Irene is out of it mentally. This song conveys the dissociative aspect of her mood. Some readers may think it is because of Brian’s actions towards Clare, I believe, however, it is due to Clare’s actions towards Brian. Irene loves Clare and it is a jealous love.

11. I Don't Really Like Your Boyfriend by Avenue Beat: Page 190-193, Irene and Brian fight. It is their worst fight yet, and Irene realizes she does not love him anymore but feels trapped. This is a good fight song but also doubles as her realization song about how Brian treats her and how it is not okay. Irene wants Clare. 

12. All for us by Labrinth and Zendaya: Page 209, Clare falls. Imagine this shot in slow motion. Clare falls backward and Irene stretches out her hands, leans out the window, and screams. Clare’s face is completely calm, and serene, taking in her last moments looking up at the woman she loves.

13. Right Where You Left Me by Taylor Swift: End of the book, Irene is alone. She is right where Clare left her. More trapped and alone than ever. In the song the lyric “and everybody moved on, I stayed there” encompasses Irene’s situation. For the rest of her life, Irene passes not only as a white woman but as a straight woman too. ~Fin~

Bibliography 

Blackmore, David L. “That Unreasonable Restless Feeling”: The Homosexual Subtexts of Nella Larsen’s Passing.” African American Review, vol. 26, no. 3, 1992, p. 475, 10.2307/3041919.https://www.jstor.org/stable/3041919?seq=1 

• A journal that brings in facts about the author to prove that the lesbian aspects so many readers pick up on in passing were real and intentional. Blackmore discusses the fact that Irene hides her desire and love for Clare behind racial solidarity. This is so obvious yet I did not realize it before reading this journal. Irene has to have an excuse for her obsessive and close relationship with this woman, so she says they understand each other because of their shared passing experiences. What most readers do not understand, and what Blackmore picked up on, is that Clare and Irene were passing in more than one way; with their race and their sexuality. 

Tillet, Salamishah. “The Real Surprise of 'Passing': A Focus on Black Women's Inner Lives.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 19 Nov. 2021, https://www.nytimes.com/2021/11/19/movies/passing-black-lesbian-women.html.  

• An article that uses citation to call attention to the undertones of lesbianism in both Clare and Irene’s relationship, and in Clare’s day-to-day life/identity. A quote from this article reads: “In a 1986 essay on Larsen’s novel, the critic Deborah E. McDowell explained why this longing had to appear secondary to the emphasis on race. “The idea of bringing a sexual attraction between two women to full expression,” she wrote, was “too dangerous of a move” in 1929. Instead, “Larsen enveloped the subplot of Irene’s developing if unnamed and unacknowledged desire for Clare in the safe and familiar plot of racial passing.” Again the reference to racial passing being a cover for sexuality passing. The author of this article points outs Larsen’s genius in finding a loophole to tell the story she really wanted to tell. How she knew that the readers who needed to read it, would be able to see her intentions. 

Letellier, Charlotte. “Just Friends”: Queer Theory and Compulsory Heterosexuality in Nella ... https://scholarworks.calstate.edu/downloads/zp38wd29p.  

• Letellier brilliantly breaks down Passing and the queer undertones in it for her thesis. On page 14 she discusses Brian and Irene’s relationship and notes the lack of romance and chemistry. She contrasts this with the way Irene speaks about Clare throughout the novel. This direct quote from the thesis gives volumes of backbone to the theory: “Additionally, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, the earliest use of the word queer in connection with the LGBT community was in 1914 in the Los Angeles Times. (Oxford English Dictionary) It is within the realm of possibility that Larsen would have been aware of the potential connotation of the word “queer” at the time. If Irene is closeted, as indicated by her interest in and her resistance towards Clare, it would be easy to suggest that she herself would be aware of the connotation of queer.” Before reading this, I was somewhat skeptical of my own idea, what if Larson had not even considered the possibility that her book would be interpreted like this? Now, however, I believe more than ever Larson knew the undertones her book held and they were intentional. 

Lingel, Jessa. “Adjusting the Borders: Bisexual Passing and Queer Theory.” Penn Libraries, 2009, https://repository.upenn.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1723&context=asc_papers. 

• This article brings up a darker side to this theory. The fact that bisexuality is capitalized upon. Authors write about bisexuality in a very ambiguous way. They feel as if they never have to fully acknowledge it because there is always the underlying “what if” that exists in a person until their sexuality is specified. This gives writers the freedom, though they should not always take it, to write about people in a vague sense. They then can take to the media and claim these characters are “bisexual” or can be seen as such. This earns them brownie points with the LGBTQ community, while not fulling turning away their straight audience either. 

Thomson, Chase. “Black and Queer Intersectionality in Nella Larsen's Passing.” The Garden Statuary, 1 Apr. 2021, https://thegardenstatuary.com/archives/3423. 

• This article discusses the history of what was going on during the time period this book is set. “The Tulsa Race Massacres and the second rising of the Ku Klux Klan,” between all of this, the 1920s was a tense time politics-wise. This is even more reason Clare and Irene needed to pass, in regards to race and sexuality. “Between the advocacy she partakes in to the romanticism she displays with Clare, Irene Redfield is a pillar of Black feminism in Passing—whether she is aware of it or not.” This is an excellent note to end on. Irene was a girl boss, and Clare should've been her wife.