THE TROPE OF PASSING AND THE RACIAL IDENTITY CRISIS IN NELLA LARSEN’S PASSING AND JESSIE REDMON FAUSET’S PLUM BUN By FEYZA BURAK ADLI

Feyza Burak Adli Thesis under the direction of Mary DeShazer, Ph.D., Professor of English THE TROPE OF PASSING AND THE RACIAL IDENTITY CRISIS IN NELLA LARSEN’S PASSING AND JESSIE REDMON FAUSET’S PLUM BUN This study compares Nella Larsen’s Passing and Jessie Redmon Fauset’s Plum Bun in terms of their treatments of the trope of passing and racial identity. This comparison demonstrates that Fauset is an emblematic writer of the Harlem Renaissance, whereas Larsen is an atypical writer within this milieu. Further, although it is conventionally asserted that the Harlem Renaissance writers view race as a cultural contrast by embracing cultural pluralism, this study delineates that they do not completely eschew essentialism, which they repudiate.