"Caught between Two Allegiances": The Representation of Racial Passing in Jessie Redmon Fauset's Plum Bun and Brit Bennett's The Vanishing Half

The main purpose of this thesis is to analyze and compare two novels, Plum Bun: A Novel Without a Moral (1929) by Jessie Redmon Fauset and The Vanishing Half (2020) by Brit Bennett, to explore the evolution and the employment of the trope of racial passing in African American literature. As both novels take place in a century of radical social change, the events of the 20th century will be outlined to provide a context for the reading of these two works. In particular, this thesis will examine and compare the rationales behind the passers’ choice to cross the color line. Moreover, it will discuss the representation of passing, womanhood and female sexuality as well as the issues of identity and the power dynamics that regulate the relationships between men and women.