"Anything Might Happen": Spatial Metaphor, Instability, and Escape in Nella Larsen's Passing

Abstract:In the first queer and trans phenomenological reading of Nella Larsen's Passing, I argue that Clare's radical potential is sustained by and past the novel's end. I make this argument through two central interventions: the theorization of a new amalgamated analytic of instability, and a close reading of Passing for the radical politics this amalgamation makes visible. I read Clare's passage through the window as sustaining her radical potential through the textually unconfirmed nature of her presumed death and its violation of the physical laws Larsen employs as symbols.