Alien Love- Passing, Race, and the Ethics of the Neighbor in Postwar
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UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA Los Angeles Alien Love: Passing, Race, and the Ethics of the Neighbor in Postwar African American Novels, 1945-1956 A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the Requirements for the degree Doctor of Philosophy In English By Hannah Wonkyung Nahm 2021 © Copyright by Hannah Wonkyung Nahm 2021 ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION Alien Love: Passing, Race, and the Ethics of the Neighbor in Postwar African American Novels, 1945-1956 by Hannah Wonkyung Nahm Doctor of Philosophy in English University of California, Los Angeles, 2021 Professor King-Kok Cheung, Co-Chair Professor Richard Yarborough, Co-Chair This dissertation examines Black-authored novels featuring White (or White-passing) protagonists in the post-World War II decade (1945-1956). Published during the fraught postwar political climate of agitation for integration and the continual systematic racism, many novels by Black authors addressed the urgent topic of interracial relationality, probing the tabooed question of whether Black and White can abide in love and kinship. One of the prominent—and controversial—literary strategies sundry Black novelists used in this decade was casting seemingly raceless or ambiguously-raced characters. Collectively, these novels generated a mixture of critical approval and dismissal in their time and up until recently, marginalized from the African American literary tradition. Even more critically overlooked than the ostensibly raceless project was the strategic mobilization of the trope of passing by some midcentury Black ii writers to imagine the racial divide and possible reconciliation. This dissertation intersects passing with postwar Black fiction that features either racially-anomalous or biracial central characters. Examining three novels from this historical period as my case studies, I argue that one of the ways in which Black writers of this decade have imagined the possibility of interracial love—with all its political pitfalls and ethical imperatives —is through the trope of passing. Through the paradoxical leitmotif of passing with its ontological defiance, fugitive liminality, and its distinctly African American historical association, Willard Savoy, Zora Neale Hurston, and James Baldwin invoke the Judeo-Christian ethics of the neighbor—loving one’s neighbor as oneself—to envision love across different borders and to underscore the need for intersectional accountability, breaking down the binary divisions associated with race, gender, class, and sexuality, as well as between the oppressor and the oppressed. They imagine passing as a vexed yet productive site or passage way toward neighbor-love. The primary methodological thread that interweaves my chapters is the use of intertextual lens: By reading the novel under study against works by the same author or by other African American writers, I spotlight the shared commitment of the authors studied to the ethics of neighbor-love as well as their deep engagement with the African American literary tradition. iii The dissertation of Hannah Wonkyung Nahm is approved. Fred D’Aguiar Kenneth Reinhard King-Kok Cheung, Committee Co-Chair Richard Yarborough, Committee Co-Chair University of California, Los Angeles 2021 iv For King-Kok Cheung and Angela Deaver Campbell, two strong women and mothers who embody the essence of Neighbor-Love v TABLE OF CONTENTS Acknowledgements vii Vita ix INTRODUCTION 1 CHAPTER 1 Genre, Gendered Passing, and the Ethics of the Neighbor: Interfacing Willard Savoy’s Alien Land with Chesnutt’s House and Johnson’ Autobiography 44 CHAPTER 2 Their Eyes Were Watching Seraph: Intertextual Passing and Neighbor-Love in Zora Neale Hurston’s Seraph on the Suwanee 96 CHAPTER 3 Loving the Female Neighbor as One’s Queer Self: Reimagination of Motley’s Knock and Himes’s Cast in Baldwin’s Giovanni’s Room 163 EPILOGUE Reprising Passing and Neighbor-Love in the Time of Covid-19 and Black Lives Matter 231 BIBLIOGRAPHY 243 vi ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The word that describes my dissertation committee is “synergistic.” A dream team of stellar intellectuals, dedicated teachers, and empathic human beings, Richard Yarborough, King- Kok Cheung, Kenneth Reinhard, and Fred D’Aguiar deserve my lifetime of thanks and gratitude. Not only has Richard guided me with his near encyclopedic knowledge of African American letters, but with surgical precision, he has challenged and encouraged me to hone my argument and writing. King-Kok has meticulously guided my dissertation from start to finish and motivated me to strive for excellence by alternating between the loving mentor and something of a “tiger adviser.” Kenneth, in turn, allowed me to dare to dream. One of the most brilliant thinkers I know, he is shockingly accessible and generous. His concept of the ethics of the Neighbor and his theoretical expertise have been indispensable to my dissertation project. Last but certainly not least, Fred took a leap of faith to serve on my committee. While I have not had the privilege to take a creative-writing workshop with him (which I hope to rectify via post- dissertation audit), he has generously agreed to work with me knowing how I admire his work and what moral support it would be for me, a burgeoning creative writer as I like to think I am, to have a fellow writer and devotee of Black Anglophone literature on my committee. I would also like to thank those teachers and mentors who have supported and inspired me in my graduate career. In the UCLA Department of English, I am indebted to Jenny Sharpe, the Vice-Chair of Graduate Studies, for her advice, wisdom, and compassion. I also owe a debt of gratitude to Caroline Streeter and Michael Colacurcio who encouraged and sustained my passion for American literature and whose mentorship and care I relied on during the various milestones of graduate studies. For their tireless support and nonjudgmental kindness, I must vii thank Michael Lambert, our Graduate Adviser, and Jeannette Gilkison, our forever Departmental mother. I am also grateful to Chris Mott who has been my role model for excellence in teaching. In the UCLA Department of Political Science, the late James Tong deserves my heartfelt thanks for his kind spirit and intellectual brilliance. Beyond UCLA, I want to offer my deepest thanks to Eric Sundquist (Johns Hopkins) and Erica Edwards (UC Riverside) for their generosity and guidance during my earlier years as a doctoral student. During my graduate years, I have been blessed with countless friends and colleagues whose good cheer, moral support, and words of compassion have made my life sane. To name all of them here would create perchance a list as long as the dissertation itself. Lest my memory falters and I am remiss in acknowledging all the names of these beautiful souls, I want to thank them collectively in this imperfect way instead. That said, I must acknowledge one person in particular: Angela Deaver Campbell, my supervisor and mentor at the UCLA Scholarship Resource Center. Over the years, Angela has nourished me, body, soul, and mind. Without her profound empathy, sage advice, and lively anecdotes, this dissertation would not have been written. This is why I have dedicated this dissertation to Angela alongside King-Kok. They are my role models, my surrogate mothers, and they have empowered me to love myself so that I have the wherewithal to love my neighbors. They have championed those of us who are moms in graduate school. They have taught me that I matter and that, roughly quoting King-Kok here, even if I do not do anything more in life; even if I did not pursue such a thing as a dissertation, I am already a “success” because I’m a “heroic mom.” Finally, I want to thank my family for their patience and love during this journey. I am grateful that the universe has brought us together. I am thankful to my parents, siblings, and my boys, Casper, Hero, and Jordan. I am blessed to have my soulmate, Jason Owen. viii VITA EDUCATION June 2021 (Expected) Ph.D. English University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) May 2003 M.A. English Graduation with Distinction Creative Writing Thesis California State University, Northridge (CSUN) June 1998 B.A. American Literature and Culture Magna Cum Laude with College Honors Phi Beta Kappa University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) PUBLICATIONS Scholarly Journals and Refereed Book Chapters • “Model Minority (Tres)Passing in the BLM Age: Asian Stereotypes as Subversive Strategy for Combating Anti-Blackness in Yamamoto’s ‘A Fire in Fontana’ and Ty Pak’s ‘The Court Interpreter.’” philoSOPHIA 10.2. Forthcoming Summer 2021. (critical essay) • “Loving the White Neighbor as Oneself: Transgressive Motherhood and Neighbor-Love in Zora Neale Hurston’s Seraph on the Suwanee.” Lifting the Mantilla: Unveiling the Mystique of Motherhood. Ed. Arpita Ghosh. Authors Press, 2019. (book chapter) Short Fiction • “The Zipper on Your Back,” under consideration for publication • “Submission,” Envelope (Spring 2019), Online. • “Handcuffs,” CUNY FORUM (Spring 2018). • “Mirror Talk,” Eunoia Review (July 19, 2017), Online. https://eunoiareview.wordpress.com/tag/hannah-nahm/ • “Love Connection,” AmerAsia Journal 39.3 (November 2013). • “Emergency Food and Bones,” Northridge Review (Fall 2004). • “The Dress,” Northridge Review (Fall, 2003). UNIVERSITY TEACHING EXPERIENCE Teaching Fellow, English 100 Way of Reading Race with Professor King-Kok Cheung, Fall 2019. Instructor and Seminar Course Designer, English 4 (Critical Reading & Writing), Spring and Fall 2007, Fall 2009, Winter 2010, Spring, 2010, Fall